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Geotechnical News December 2010
Mountain Ibex on the Cingino Dam, Italy
A herd of male Mountain Ibex
was captured by photographer and
mountain climber Adriano Migliorati
on the face of
the 50 m high Cingino Dam in the Alps
of Northern Italy.
The Alpine Ibex has for a long time
been regarded as a mystical animal –
almost all of its body parts and its ex-
crement were sought after as cures for
various illnesses and as ingredients for
magical potions. An ancient Egyptian
recipe for the cure of baldness included
ibex fat among its ingredients.
The Mountian Ibex is typically
found in very steep and rocky terrain,
at altitudes of up to 15,000 feet in the
European Alps. They seek refuge at
high altitudes to protect themselves
from predators.. The Ibex are even-toed
hoofed animals (ungulates). The Ibex
climb steep faces by using the nails on
the front of their hooves to cling onto
steep slopes - on flat surfaces the nails
do not touch the ground.
As a result of very extensive hunt-
ing, the ibex was almost extinct as
early as the beginning of the 19th cen-
tury. In the 1850s King Emmanuel II
of Italy decided to allow no one but the
royal family to hunt the few remaining
Alpine Ibex, creating a game preserve
in the Italian Alps. The Mountain Ibex
population has grown steadily from the
1960s. In the 1990s it was estimated
that about 30, 000 ibex live in the Alps
of Switzerland (15, 000) Italy (9,700)
France (3,300) and Austria (3,200). All
current populations originate from re-
introduction of the species
“Peter Bosshard, policy director
for International Rivers, interprets
these impressive scenes as indicative
of how nature will overcome man-
kind’s often destructive engineering
accomplishments.
Dam builders may use the pictures
as proof that dams provide some
unexpected benefits in spite of all their
negative impacts. Dam busters may
find hope in the fact that if we can’t
decommission dams, goats can at least
re-commission them.” (source treehu-
gger.com).
Since photos appeared on the Inter-
net in September 2010, the behavior
of the Ibex has appeared in national
papers in the UK, Italy, and even the
National Enquirer magazine.
The Cingino reservoir is at an elevation of 2250 m in the Italian Alps. The Cingino Dam was built in the late 1920s and raised
the level of an existing glacial lake to form the reservoir. The reservoir has a capacity of about 4.5 cubic meters.
