Pyrenean chamois

Rupicapra pyrenaica

Group: Big game
Size class: Medium (10–70 kg)
Family: Bovidae

Range

Europe

Habitat

Mountain

Range

Countries it is found in

4 countries

Andorra
France
Italy
Spain

Range from:ASM Mammal Diversity Database, GBIF occurrence records — read 2026-08-05

Chapter 01

Overview

The Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica) is a goat-antelope of the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Mountains of Spain, France and Andorra, and of the Apennines of central Italy. It is one of the two species of the genus Rupicapra, the other being the Alpine chamois. Three subspecies are recognised: the Pyrenean chamois proper in Andorra, France and Spain, the Cantabrian chamois in Spain, and the Abruzzo chamois in central and southern Italy. It goes by many local names — isard in Catalan, Occitan and French, sarrio in Aragonese, rebeco in Spanish — and the French keep the two species apart as chamois and isard.

Chapter 02

Identification

Up to 80 cm at the shoulder, 90–130 cm long with a tail of only 3–4 cm, and 24–50 kg. The summer coat is short and ruddy brown, noticeably redder than the Alpine chamois'; the winter coat is long, dense and black or dark brown, with darker patches around the eyes and sometimes pale patches on the back of the neck, the shoulders and the flanks. Both sexes carry horns up to 20 cm long that rise and then hook backwards.

Chapter 03

Behaviour

A sure-footed, agile climber found at any elevation up to 3,000 m. It favours mountain meadows and rocky ground and generally avoids forest, moving to higher altitudes in summer. Does and their young form herds, while bucks live mostly alone outside the rut. It browses and grazes according to season on grasses, herbs, mosses, lichens and tree buds. Gestation lasts about 170 days and the doe usually bears a single kid in spring; twins are rare.

Chapter 04

Hunting

Like other chamois it was hunted almost to extinction, especially in the 1940s, for the production of chamois leather. The species has since recovered — about 50,000 mature animals were estimated in 2022 — and the IUCN lists it as least concern, though hunting and habitat loss are still named as threats. The Italian subspecies fared worst: only 300 to 400 remained in the 1990s. The Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park was among the measures taken to save it, and numbers have since risen to around 1,000.

Sources

Sources: Pyrenean chamois — Wikipedia, Pyreneisk gems — Wikipedia (sv) — read 2026-10-29

Cross-reference