Pyrenean ibex

The Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica), Aragonese and Spanish common name bucardo, Basque common name bukardo, Catalan common name herc and French common name bouquetin, was one of the four subspecies of the Iberian ibex or Iberian wild goat (Capra pyrenaica), a species native to the Iberian Peninsula and immediately adjacent southern France. The Pyrenean ibex occurred in the northeastern part of the species' range in the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees, in northern Spain and the far south of France. This subspecies was common during the Holocene and Upper Pleistocene, during which their morphology, primarily some skulls, of the Pyrenean ibex evolved to be larger than other subspecies of Capra pyrenaica in southwestern Europe from the same time. The last Pyrenean ibex died in January 2000, making the subspecies extinct. Other subspecies have survived; the western Spanish or Gredos ibex, and the southeastern Spanish or beceite ibex, while the Portuguese ibex had already become extinct a century earlier. Since the last of the Pyrenean ibex became extinct before scientists could adequately analyse them, the taxonomy of this particular subspecies is controversial. Following several failed attempts to revive the subspecies through cloning of preserved tissue from the last surviving female, a living specimen was born in July 2003. The cloned Pyrenean ibex was born in Spain through genetic cloning techniques, with the research article published in 2009. However, she died several minutes after birth of a lung defect. The Pyrenean ibex is the first animal to have been brought back from extinction through cloning and also the only one to become extinct twice.