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The Subspecies of the Spanish Ibex

1911; Zoological Society of London; Volume: 81; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1096-3642.1911.tb01967.x

0370-2774

Ángel Cabrera,

Plant and animal studies

The first scientific description of a Spanish Ibex was that published in 1833 by F. Cuvier, in the great iconographic work ' Histoire Naturelle des Mainmifeéres,' pl.396.It was based on a young male from the Pyrenees, of which the author gave a beautiful figure in winter pelage, but was not accompanied by any technical name.In the index of the work, published in 1842, the animal is erroneously called Capra ibex, the fact being apparently ignored that four years before Schinz had described the same forn m of Goat under the name Capra p yrenaice T ieIn volume xxvi.(1848) of the 'Comptes Rendus' of the Paris Academy of Science, Schimper briefly mentioned the Ibex of the Andalusian sierras, naming it C. hispanica and considering it as quite a different species, a view followed by all the authors "of the time, and sustained still in our own days by F orsyth Major = and Graells$.Modern zoologists, however, seem to agree in admitting only one species of Spanish Ibex, though admitting that there are some differences between the specimens coming from the Pyrenees and those from other parts of the Peninsula.Sclater || considers the latter as a " slightly altered phase" of the foruione and 'Trouessart, in his ' Conspectus Mammalium Europe,' expresses the same idea in a more modern fashion, describing two different subspecies: Capra pyrenaica, from the '"' chaine des Pyrénées," and C. pyrenaica hispanica, from the "chaines de montagnes de |'Espagne Centrale et Méridionale."I do' not intend to discuss now the meaning of the terms species and subspecies.While awaiting a satisfactory and univer.sally accepted definition of these wor ds, I agree with other authors in considering all the Spanish Wild Goats as belonging to a single species ; but as to the number of subspecies, I think there are, not two, but three at least, the Ibex of Central Spain being quite different from both the Pyrenean and the Andalusian forms.This view has been anticipated by Ménégaux in Perrier's ' Vie des Aniimaux,' as he says that 'la forme qui habite les sierras du centre de la Péninsule fait le passage entre les deux formes susnommeées " (pyrenaica and hispanica).This central subspecies remains, however, unnamed and undescribed as a different form, and to name and describe it are the chief purposes of the present.paper.