Ibex

Excavations from Minoan Crete at Knossos, for example, have yielded specimens from c. 1800 BCE, including one cylinder seal depicting an ibex defending himself from a hunting dog.

[6] From the similar age a gold jewelry ibex image was found at the Akrotiri archaeological site[7] on Santorini in present day Greece.

[8] Earlier evidence of domestication or hunting of the ibex was found identified through DNA analysis of the contents of the stomach of Ötzi, the natural mummy of a Chalcolithic man discovered in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, who lived between 3400 and 3100 BCE.

[citation needed] In Yemen, the ibex is a longstanding symbol of national identity, representing many positive attributes of the Yemeni people.

Charles-Felix, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia, banned the hunting of the ibex across his estates of the Gran Paradiso after being persuaded by a report on the animal's endangered state.

In 1856, Victor Emmanuel II, succeeding Charles-Felix as the king, inducted the Gran Paradiso as a protected hunting estate along with appointed gamekeepers to patrol the area.