Nikolai Leonov, a sports hunter, shared his unusual experience that occurred last year in the mountains of the Chui region. At the time, while he was enjoying the beauty of nature and filming it, a young ibex suddenly approached him closely. "He looked to be about five years old. At first, he was startled to see me, but quickly sensed danger, whistled, and immediately slipped away," the hunter recounts. He added that he had heard the whistles of mountain ibexes before, but had never taken it seriously until he witnessed it himself.
Ecology specialist Alexander Sosnovsky confirmed that the whistle is indeed a characteristic sound for Siberian ibexes. "In high-altitude conditions, where they inhabit heights from 2500 to 4500 meters, the whistle allows them to communicate, especially when the air is thin and the wind is noisy. Interestingly, different males can whistle differently, which helps them distinguish each other," he noted.
