Alpine Ibex on rocky mountain slope

Against steep odds

Though this Alpine ibex is a resident of France, you can bet your bottom Euro its ancestors come from Italy. Overhunted for centuries, this species of amply horned goats saw its numbers reduced to around 100 animals by the late 1800s. That small population resided in Italy's Gran Paradiso region near the French and Swiss borders, and most Alpine ibexes in the wild today are descended from them (a classic population bottleneck). It was a close call with a good outcome—but not without consequence. Even though the species is now considered least-concern with an estimated 50,000 living individuals, it's extremely low in genetic diversity, making it more vulnerable to disease than before.