Police pick up hunter after rare ibex goat killed

GUARDIA CIVIL officers from the Seprona nature protection division have arrested a hunter for illegally killing an ibex goat in the natural park of Sierra Maria Los Velez.

The hunter had hidden the body of the animal before making his exit. Seprona heard that during a day of legalised hunting of wild boar, an ibex goat was possibly killed and the body concealed.

With limited information, the Seprona agents were still able to locate the potential hunter. In an initial interview the hunter denied killing the animal and gave several contradictory accounts of the day.

However, he eventually admitted that he had fired a shot at the ibex and subsequently hidden the corpse in the Cerros Gordos area of Sierra Maria Los Velez natural park.

The hunter gave the agents the location of the corpse and they were able to locate the body, which was in an advanced state of composition and had been devoured by vermin.

The ibex goat is being reintroduced to the Sierra Maria Los Velez, its former native habitat. Hunting of the ibex is illegal.