Nubian Ibex (Capra nubiana) Fact Sheet: Managed Care

Housing and exhibits

• Displayed in multispecies exhibits
• Housed with Arabian oryx, baboons, gelada, and rock hyrax in mixed species exhibits (Mott 2013)

History of managed care (from Mott 2013)

• In North America
  • 1925: 1st Nubian ibex
    • Brought into the Philadelphia Zoo
    • 2 individuals; 1 male and 1 female
      • No modern descendents of these individuals
  • 1946-1959: Nubian ibex absent from U.S. zoos

Current North American population (from Mott and Putnam 2013)

• 73 animals, as of December 2013
  • Distributed across 7 Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) institutions; 1 non-AZA institution
  • 34 males, 39 females
  • All descended from 13 founders; imported during the early-1960s and mid-1970s
    • From the Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve in Israel - a part of the Israel Nature Reserves and National Parks Authority, which established and coordinated a protected breeding and reintroduction program for endangered and locally extinct animals mentioned in the Bible

Historical records

• 1939: first group of Nubian ibex brought to San Diego Zoo
  • From Hearst Ranch in San Simeon, California (Mott 2013)
  • No modern descendants of these individuals

Image credit: © Elanna from Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Mott (2013)
Mott and Putnam (2013)