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Hardly any wild animal of the high mountains has played such a major role in the sagas, superstition, traditional medicine and customs as the alpine ibex. Its strength, grace and powerful antlers fascinated people to such an extent that the ibex was exterminated by poachers throughout almost the entire Alpine region. The last of its species survived at the foot of one of Europe’s highest mountains – the Gran Paradiso in the border area between Aosta and Piemont. Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy placed the animals under protection in 1856, thus enabling the population to recover and until the present day the largest and finest bucks in Europe are to be found here. During spring, summer and autumn the bucks had time to find out who is the strongest, so that in the mating season in December they know who is the leader of the pack. Nevertheless, fierce confrontations between bucks of the same age may still occur, horns clashing, bucks jostling each other in boisterous combat. Gradually ibexes are to be found once again in the eastern Alps: in the Ködniz Valley at the foot of the Großglöckner the she-goats give birth every year. France and Switzerland are also proud of their ibex colonies. But how was the Alpine king able to reconquer his realm?