The High Andes

Alpine Ibex

European by blood. Patagonian by birth.

Alpine ibex (Capra ibex ibex) are not native to South America. They were shipped out of Europe in 1966 and arrived here as Parque Diana was inaugurated as a coto that same year — part of a shipment of nearly 200 head of European game carried to Patagonia by ship and by plane. They took to the mountain immediately, doubled their numbers within three years, and have run wild on this mountain ever since.

Archival photograph of wooden crates of European game being unloaded from a truck at the airfield before the voyage to Patagonia — 1966 — The crates. While Europe was still fighting to restore the Alpine ibex, a small herd was crated and shipped out of the Alps, reaching Patagonia in time for the inauguration of Parque Diana as a coto in 1966 — carrying the same hope of recovery to these mountains.

Their numbers doubled in three years, and the ibex kids born in Argentina bound over stock and stone as though they and their forebears had been living south of the equator for centuries.
Alfred M. Zoll, “Das Steinwild” — on the first ibex at Parque Diana

From the Family Archive

Archival colour photograph of the Parque Diana family and guides on the mountain with one of the first Alpine ibex on the mountain — Circa 1970The impossible made real. At the centre of the frame, two Patagonian gauchos stand beside the first Alpine ibex ever hunted outside the Alps—a scene so extraordinary that it echoed across Europe, proving that already in 1970s one of its greatest mountain icons had found a second homeland in Parque Diana.

1972 archive photograph of Dr. Carl Adolf Vogel and the Parque Diana men standing behind an Alpine ibex in the Patagonian forest — 1972At the centre stands Dr. Carl Adolf Vogel—the German consul and visionary founder of Parque Diana. Surrounded by the men who helped transform a remote corner of Patagonia into an extraordinary wildlife experiment, Vogel poses behind an Alpine ibex. More than a trophy photograph, the image captures the people behind a legacy that would place Parque Diana on the international mountain-hunting map.

1983 archive photograph of head guide Beat Affolter and hunter Mr. März standing beside a mature Alpine ibex billy high above Parque Diana — 1983High above Parque Diana, head guide Beat Affolter and hunter Mr. März (standing), next to a mature billy—a quiet portrait of the experience and mountain tradition that shaped its early years.

C.J. McElroy, founder of Safari Club International, with a heavy-horned free-range Alpine ibex taken at Parque Diana in Patagonia — 1988C.J. McElroy—"Mr. Mac," founder of Safari Club International—took an Alpine ibex at Parque Diana in 1988. That trophy still stands in the SCI Record Book. More importantly, McElroy publicized the ranch through SAFARI Magazine in the late 1980s, introducing Parque Diana and Argentine big game to American hunters at a time when few outside Europe knew a free-range Alpine ibex existed anywhere but the Alps.

The only free-range population of Alpine ibex outside the Alps. Brought from Europe when Parque Diana was founded, they took to the mountain, spread on their own terms, and have lived wild here ever since. It is a mountain hunt in the full sense of the word: thin air, raw rock and animals that have never been pressured.

We glass from ridgelines at first light and close the distance only when the mountain allows. Your guide has spent decades reading these slopes; the stalk is as much a part of the memory as the shot.

These are mature males with heavy, sweeping horns — the kind of trophies that demand patience, fitness and a steady rifle.

Only free-range Alpine ibex population outside the European Alps
Hunted on foot, high on the mountain
May hunts — small number of tags per season
Recommended: good boots, moderate mountain fitness

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Alpine Ibex gallery

Free-range Alpine ibex billies from recent seasons on this mountain — mature males judged in the field for horn mass and length. SCI scores are confirmed after drying and added here as they are certified.

Hunter beside a heavy, deeply ridged Alpine ibex billy on a rocky Andean crag above a misty valley

Hunter with a heavy, long-horned free-range Alpine ibex on a high rocky ridge

Hunter with a long-horned Alpine ibex on a snow-streaked Andean slope under a deep blue sky

Heavy-horned Alpine ibex billy resting on a rocky outcrop above a Patagonian lake in rain and low cloud

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Other Species at Parque Diana

The Patagonian Roar

Red Stag

March – April (the roar)