on the chin and throat and in a stripe along the back. They moult twice a year, firstly in April or May, and then again in September, when they replace the short summer coat with thicker hair and a woolly undercoat. Males commonly grow to a height of at the withers, with a body length of and weigh from . Females are noticeably smaller, with a shoulder height of , a body length of , and a weight of . Both male and female Alpine ibex have large, backwards-curving horns with numerous ridges along their length. At , those of the males are substantially larger than those of females, which reach only in length. Distribution and ecology During the Last Glacial Period the species range was reaching as far south as Greece, where it disappeared in the Holocene, after 5,600 BC due to hunting, with the last known remains being found on mountains surrounding Thessaly. The Alpine ibex was, at one point, restricted only to the Gran Paradiso National Park in northern Italy, and the contiguous Maurienne Valley in the French Alps but it was reintroduced to most of the Alps. Reintroductions started in 1906 into Switzerland. Alpine ibex are now found in most or all of the Italian and French alpine ranges, southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It has also been introduced to Bulgaria and Slovenia. An excellent climber, its preferred habitat is the rocky region along the snow line above alpine forests, where it occupies steep, rough terrain at elevations of . Alpine ibex are typically absent from woodland areas, although adult males in densely populated areas may stay in larch and mixed larch-spruce woodland if no snow has fallen. Males spend the winter in coniferous forests. For most of the year, males and females occupy different habitats. Females rely on steep terrain more so than males. Males use lowland meadows during the spring, which is when snow melts and green grass appears. They then climb to alpine meadows during the summer. When winter arrives, both sexes move to steep, rocky slopes that amass little snow. They prefer slopes of 30–45° and use small caves and overhangs for shelter. Home ranges are highly variable, depending on the availability of resources, and vary in size throughout the year. Figures from have been recorded. Home ranges tend to be largest during summer and autumn, smallest in winter, and intermediate in