Nubian Ibex

Nubian Ibex
アイベックス
Character Data
Romaji		Aibekkusu
Debut		Kemono Friends 3
Animal Data
Scientific Name		Capra nubiana
Distribution		Middle East
Diet		Herbivore
Avg. Lifespan		12 years (wild), 18 years (captivity)
Read More		Nubian ibex
Conservation

Nubian Ibex

KF3

Gallery

Nubian Ibex is a type of bovid Friend who first appeared in Kemono Friends 3.

Appearance

Nubian Ibex has pale skin with a distinct blush on her cheeks. Her eyes are golden-brown and, true to real life goats, have rectangular pupils. The hair is a soft tan and goes down to her chin, with a slightly ruffled fringe. The tips are white. Long ears sit on top of her head and are the same tan as her hair, save for the tiny dark brown "triangle" markings on the inside. Also true to the real life ibex, she has impressively long horns that curve up and behind her head.

She has a very "safari" color theme to her clothes: the shirt is a collared khaki button-up with a brown crop jacket over top. The collar has a black ascot tie in the middle. Her skirt is on the shorter side and is the same shade of brown as her crop jacket, complete with a white fur trim. The belt on her waist is the same black as her ascot. Lastly, her arm and leg warmers are an off-white with black accents, and her gloves and shoes are matching black.

Series Appearances

Appearances In Kemono Friends Media

Media		Role
2019	Kemono Friends 3	↪ Minor character, obtainable

In Real Life

A mature male Nubian ibex on some rocks in Palestine. A red ID tag can be seen on his right ear. Photo by Greg Schechter.

A mature female Nubian ibex with her young kid. Photo by Paul Asman and Jill Lenoble.

The Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) is an ibex species found in pockets of Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, with population data from Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Yemen being noted as "uncertain". They prefer arid, rocky, mountainous areas, especially places with many cliff faces. Their main food sources are mountainous grasses and leaves, specifically leaves from Acacia trees. When feeding, the ibexes can both forage on the ground as well as stand on their hind legs to reach desirable tree leaves; ibexes have even been observed scaling trees branch by branch to feed. The exact preferred plants depend on how much rain there is and how close available water sources are to cliffs. Predators of the Nubian ibex include Arabian leopards, Arabian wolves, golden jackals, red foxes, golden eagles, and bearded vultures; the predatory behaviour of these carnivores ranges from active hunting of ibexes to scavenging of the dead.

The Nubian ibex, like many bovids, exhibits notable sexual dimorphism: males are significantly heavier than females, averaging 52–74.7 kg (115–165 lb.) compared to the females' 25.3–32.7 kg (56–72 lb.), possess a distinctive black "mane" running down their backs, and while both sexes grow horns, those of male Nubian ibexes are considerably longer; a male's horns can reach over three feet (usually 39 in.), whereas female's horns are only a foot (usually around 12 in.). Both sexes stand around 65–75 cm (26–30 in.) tall at the shoulder. Fur color ranges from light tan (especially in females) to dark brown; the legs have a black-and-white "sock" pattern, with the black stripe going down the middle. Their distinctive horns are long and thin, extending up and curling around the back of the head.

Herds typically consist of multiple females, their young, and males up to around three years old; like other goats and relatives, a male Nubian Ibex is called a "buck" or "billy", a female is called a "doe" or "nanny", and young goats are "kids". Herd member populations range from as few as 20 to as many as 50. Once the males leave the herd, they are solitary until mating season, when they temporarily rejoin a herd for six to eight weeks. They are fiercely competitive for females during this time, clashing with their horns to fight for dominance. The mating season lasts between October and November, with gestation lasting another five months. Females typically only bear one or two kids.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the Nubian ibex as "vulnerable", as the population is in decline and fewer than 10,000 mature individuals remain. The Nubian ibex was historically common across the Middle East and Northeastern Africa, but human activities such as farming—leading to competition with domestic livestock for food and water— hunting pressure, habitat fragmentation, and habitat destruction have ousted the ibex from much of its original range; following the species' extirpation in Lebanon and Syria, a "captive breeding and reintroduction" program has been taken on by Lebanese conservationists. They are known to abandon high quality food sources if there is a high human presence, and will seek out water sources with less human disturbance. Despite this, some herds have been seen staying close to human settlements, as there is more food and protection from predators. Some have even been seen standing on cars and walking into buildings.

Trivia

Two very young Nubian ibex kids. Photo by user Rhododendrites.

Species Trivia

• The Nubian ibex is the smallest ibex species.
• A baby ibex is called a kid. Kids can stand within 15 minutes of being born, and can nurse within two hours.
• There is understood to be a correlation between an individual ibex's age and the number of ridges on its horns: generally, the more ridges present, the older the ibex.
• The earliest Nubian ibex remains were found in Palestine, and date back approximately 150,000 years.
• The genetic makeup of the Nubian ibex as a species has remained unchanged for at least 2,000 years.

Friend Trivia

• Nubian Ibex, Himalayan Tahr and Alpine Ibex are the only three weapon-carrying bovid Friends to not carry double-headed spears as their armaments.
  • Furthermore, among the weapon-carrying bovid Friends, only Nubian Ibex and Himalayan Tahr carry twin weapons.
  • The three aforementioned Friends are, genetically, closely related; all hail from the bovid family's Caprinae subfamily, and fall within the Caprini tribe thereof. Nubian and Alpine Ibex belong to the Capra genus, while Himalayan Tahr comes from Hemitragus; these genii directly diverged from one another and are not known to have diverged since.

References

• Wikipedia Page
• Ross, S.; Elalqamy, H.; Al Said, T.; Saltz, D. (2020). "Capra nubiana". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T3796A22143385.
• Mendelssohn, Heinrich; Yom-Tov, Y. (1999). Mammalia of Palestine (Fauna Palestina). The Palestine Academy of Sciences and Humanities. pp. 271–280. ISBN 978-9-6520-8145-2.
• Attum, Omar; Soultan, Alaaeldin; Bender, Louis C. (1 November 2021). "Horn growth patterns of Nubian ibex from the Sinai, Egypt". Mammalia. 85 (6): 494–502.
• Hakham, Edna; Ritte, Uzi (1 January 1993). "Foraging pressure of the Nubian ibex Capra ibex nubiana and its effect on the indigenous vegetation of the En Gedi Nature Reserve, Palestine". Biological Conservation
• "The reintroduction of the Nubian ibex in Lebanon". www.istituto-oikos.org.
• Hochman, Valeria; P. Kotler, Burt (2006). "Effects of food quality, diet preference and water on patch use by Nubian ibex". Oikos. 112 (3): 547–554.