Unexplored Spain Part 15

1905. _November 8._--(P. GARVEY, C. D. W., and B. F. B.)

Santolalla 264 ducks

1905. _December 3._--CAnO DULCE (ONE GUN)

3 Greylag Geese 121 Wigeon 47 Teal 3 Pintail 3 Shovelers 1 Flamingo --- Total 178

1905-6. TWO DAYS AT CAnO DULCE (ONE GUN)

Dec. 17, 1905. Feb. 17, 1906.

Wigeon 235 47 Shovelers 10 13 Pintail 18 62 Gadwall 6 0 Teal 2 6 Marbled Duck 1 0 Geese 1 2 ---- ---- 273 130

The total on December 17 represents the "Record," and was made (as was that with geese, see p. 131) by B. F. B.

The whole of the above records refer to flight-shooting with a 12-bore gun.

Following is a list of the different ducks shot by one gun during two consecutive seasons:--

1902-3. 1903-4.

Wigeon 277 230 Pintail 267 28 Mallard 9 42 Gadwall 21 36 Shovelers 195 32 Teal 276 269 Garganey 2 1 Marbled Duck 4 51 Pochard[22] 1 0 Pochard, Crested 1 0 Tufted Duck 0 1 White-faced Duck 0 1 Unenumerated 191 0 ---- --- 1244 726

CHAPTER XIII

THE SPANISH IBEX

In the Spanish ibex Spain possesses not only a species peculiar to the Peninsula, but a game-animal of the first rank.

Fortunate it is that this sentence can be written in the present tense instead of (as but a few years ago appeared probable) in the past.

Since we first wrote on this subject in 1893 the Spanish ibex has pa.s.sed through a crisis that came perilously near extirpation. Up to the date named, and for several years later, none of the great landowners of Spain, within whose t.i.tles were included the vast sierras and mountain-ranges that form its home, had cherished either pride or interest in the Spanish wild-goat. Some were dimly conscious of its existence on their distant domains: but that was all. Not a scintilla of reproach is here inferred. For these mountain-ranges are so remote and so elevated as often to be almost inaccessible--or accessible only by organised expedition independent of local aid. Their sole human inhabitants are a segregated race of goat-herds, every man of them a born hunter, accustomed from time immemorial to kill whenever opportunity offered--and that regardless of size, s.e.x, or season. That the ibex should have survived such persecution by hardy mountaineers bespeaks their natural cunning. Their survival was due to two causes--first, the antiquated weapons employed, but, more important, the astuteness of the game and the "defence" it enjoyed in the stupendous precipices and snow-fields of those sierras, great areas of which remain inaccessible even to specialised goat-herds, save only for a limited period in summer.

But no wild animal, however astute or whatever its "defence," can withstand for ever perpetual, skilled human persecution. During the early years of the present century the Spanish ibex appeared doomed beyond hope. Private efforts over such vast areas were obviously difficult, if not impossible.

We rejoice to add that at this eleventh hour a new era of existence has been secured to _Capra hispanica_ at that precise psychological moment when its scant survivors were struggling in their last throes. The change is due to graceful action by the landowners in certain great mountain-ranges; and if our own explorations and our writings on the subject have also tended to a.s.sist, none surely will grudge the authors this expression of pride in having helped, however humbly, to preserve not only to Spain, but to the animal-world, one of its handsomest species.

This new era took different forms in different places. In certain sierras--those of less boundless area--the owners have undertaken the preservation of the ibex partly from their realising the tangible a.s.set this game-beast adds to the value of barren mountain-land, and partly in view of the legitimate sport that an increase in stock may hereafter afford.

But the main factor which has a.s.sured success (and which in itself led up to the private efforts just named) took origin in the great Sierra de Gredos. This elevated region is the apex of the long cordillera of central Spain, the Carpeto-Vetonico range, which extends from Moncayo, east of Madrid, for some 300 miles through the Castiles and Estremadura, forming the watershed of Tagus and Douro. It separates the two Castiles, and pa.s.sing the frontier of Portugal is there known as the Serra da Estrella, which, with the Cintra hills, extends to the Atlantic sea-board. Along all this extensive cordillera there is no more favoured resort of ibex than its highest peak, the Plaza de Almanzor, of 2661 metres alt.i.tude (= 8700 feet) above sea-level.

In 1905, when the ibex were about at their last gasp, the proprietors of the _Nucleo central_, which we may translate as the _Heart_ of Gredos, of their own initiative, ceded to King Alfonso XIII. the sole rights-of-chase therein, and His Majesty commissioned the Marquis of Villaviciosa de Asturias to appoint an adequate force of guards.

Six guards were selected from the self-same goat-herds who, up to that date, had themselves been engaged in hunting to extermination the last surviving ibex of the sierra, and whom we had ourselves employed during various expeditions therein.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ON THE RISCO DEL FRAILE.

SPANISH IBEX IN SIERRA DE GReDOS..]

The ceded area comprised all the best game-country, defined as the "Circo de Gredos"--including the gorge of the Laguna Grande, the Risco del Fraile, Risco del Frances, and that of Ameal de Pablo, together with the wild valley of Las Cinco Lagunas--as shown on rough sketch-plan annexed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SKETCH-MAP OF THE _NUCLeO CENTRAL_ OF GReDOS

(A. _Alto del Casquerazo._

B. _Riscos del Fraile_, with the Hermanitos in front.)]

In 1896 we estimated the stock of ibex at fifty head, and during the following years it fell far below that--by 1905 almost to zero. In 1907, after only two years of "sanctuary," it was computed by the guards that the total exceeded 300 head.

In July 1910 we inquired if it were possible to estimate the present stock. In a letter (the composition of which would cost some anxiety) the Guarda of the Madrigal de la Vera--one portion only of the "sanctuary"--reports: "It is difficult to count the ibex. Sometimes we see more, sometimes less. Yesterday on the Cabeza Nevada we counted 39 rams and 22 females together. On the other side we counted 29 in one troop, 19 in another, 12 in another, besides smaller lots. We probably saw 160 or 170, and we could not see all. Some of the old rams are very big, and it would be advisable that some be shot." Another report (at same date) from the "Hoyos del Espino," estimates the ibex there to exceed 200 head. The two reports go to show that the continuity of the race is fairly secured.

[A similar cession of sole hunting-rights to the King was simultaneously made by the owners of the "Central Group" of the Picos de Europa in Asturias. There are no ibex in that Cantabrian range; the graceful act was there inspired by a desire to preserve the chamois, animals with which we deal in another chapter.]

The Spanish ibex is found at six separate points in the Peninsula, each colony divided from its fellows as effectually as though broad oceans rolled between. The six localities are:--

(1) The Pyrenees--which we have not visited.

(2) Sierra de Gredos, as above defined, and as described in greater detail hereafter.

(3) Sierra Morena, a single isolated colony near Fuen-Caliente, now preserved (see next chapter).

(4) Sierra Nevada and the Alpuxarras (cf. _infra_).

(5) The mountains along the Mediterranean, which are properly western outliers of Nevada, but which are usually grouped as the "Serrania de Ronda," some lying within sight of Gibraltar. Several of the most important ranges are now preserved by their owners (cf. _infra_).

(6) Valencia, Sierra Martes. This forms a new habitat hitherto unrecorded, and of which we only became aware through the kindness of Mr. P. Burgoyne of Valencia, who has favoured us with the annexed photo of an ibex head killed (along with a smaller example) at Cuevas Altas in the mountain-region known as Penas Pardas in that province, February 22, 1909. The dimensions read as follows:--

Length along front curves 21-3/4 inches Circ.u.mference at base 7-7/8 "

Widest span 16-3/8 "

Tip to tip 17 "

Our informant has reason to believe that ibex also exist (or existed within recent years) in the rugged mountains of Tortosa, farther east in Catalonia.

In the form of its horns the Spanish ibex differs essentially from the typical ibex of the Alps--now, alas, exterminated save only in the King of Italy's preserved ranges around the Val d'Aosta. In the true ibex the horns bend regularly backwards and downwards in a uniform, scimitar-like curve. In the Spanish species, after first diverging laterally, the horns are recurved both inward and finally upward. That is, in the first case they follow a simple semicircular bend, while in the Spanish goats they form almost a spiral.

A minor point of difference lies in the annular rings or notches which in the true ibex are rectangular, encircling the horn in front like steps in a ladder, while in _Capra hispanica_ they rather run obliquely in semi-spiral ascent. These annulations indicate the age of the animal--one notch to each year--but the count must stop where the spiral ends. Beyond that is the lightly grooved tip, which does not alter.

The horns of old rams (which are often broken or worn down at the tips) average 26 to 28 inches, specially fine examples reaching 29 inches or more. The females likewise carry horns, but short and slender, only measuring 6 or 7 inches.

The six isolated colonies of ibex, separated from each other during ages, live under totally different natural conditions. For while some, as stated, exist at 8000, 10,000, or 12,000 feet alt.i.tude, others occupy hills of much more moderate elevations--say 4000 to 6000 feet, some of which are bush-clad to their summits. Under such circ.u.mstances there have naturally developed divergencies not only in habits, but in form and size. Particularly does this apply to the horns, and for that reason we give a series of photos of typical examples from various points.

The ibex of the Pyrenees is certainly the largest race, and has been ent.i.tled by scientists _Capra pyrenaica_; those of the centre and south of Spain being differentiated as _C. hispanica_. We attach less importance to specific distinctions, but leave the ill.u.s.trations of specimens to speak for themselves. It may, however, be remarked that examples from the two outside extremes (Pyrenees and Nevada) most closely a.s.similate in their flattened and compressed form of horn.

Neither in Gredos nor Nevada are the rock-formations so precipitous as in the Picos de Europa in Asturias--described later in this book. They present, nevertheless, difficulties possibly insuperable to mere hunters unskilled in the technique of climbing. Rock-climbing forms a recognised branch of "mountaineering," but of that science the authors (with sorrow be it confessed) have never been enamoured. To us, mountains, merely as such, have not appealed. But they form the home of alpine creatures, the study and acquisition of which were objects that no terrestrial obstacle could entirely forbid, and we enjoy retrospective pride in having so far surmounted those antecedent terrors as to have secured a few specimens of this, the most "impossible" of European trophies--the Spanish ibex.