A NUBIAN IBEX NURSERY - CRECHE OR NATURAL TRAP

In spring 1987, a novel ''nursery'' was observed among Nubian ibex (Ca pra ibex nubinana) at Avedat Canyon in the Negev desert highlands of s outhern Israel, where many young ibex kids occurred together within a concavity in a steep canyon wall. Ibex dams left their kids unattended at the site for prolonged periods while they foraged at adjacent plat eaus and wadis, and returned only to nurse and rest. In its fourth con secutive year of existence, the nursery at Avedat Canyon was active fr om 15 March to 20 April, and had a peak occupancy of 26 kids and 19 ad ult females on 7 April. Once kids became entrapped inside the nursery, ibex dams spent on average 52 +/- 40 min in behaviors apparently aimi ng to ''encourage'' kids to follow them out of the nursery. Mothers an d kids were highly excited during these bouts. Average residence times in 1989 and 1990 were 7.5 +/- 5.2 days for single kids and 14.6 +/- 5 .2 days for twins. Dams appeared to attend only their own kids when th ey returned to the nursery, were often aggressive to presumed alien ki ds, and were agonistic towards other females while in or approaching t he nursery. Three nursery kids fell to their death while in the nurser y. No instances of communal care or allo-parenting were detected in th e present study, nor have they been previously reported. Thus, we beli eve the site is not a ''creche''. Moreover, most kids appeared to be a ccidentally trapped at the nursery owing to topographical barriers, an d not intentionally sequestered there by their mothers. The special ph ysiography of the site and substantial human disturbance on the canyon floor probably contributed to the origin of the nursery and its conti nued existence.