The Dam at Lake Cingino, a reservoir created by adding a dam and enlarging a small lake in the Valley of Antrona in the Italian Alps is 160 ft high and Virtually Vertical, and those spots are Alpine Ibex seeking to lick the salts and mineral residue from the water overflow.
 
LO STAMBECCO..... alla ricerca "disperata" di sali minerali 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR9k76OxzfA&feature=related  260,000 hits 
Alpine Ibex Walking on the vertical face of Lake Cingino Dam ( 50Pix.com ) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk3XHVGqdZ0&NR=1   2804 hits 
The Amazing Survival Abilities Of The Ibex - (The Dead Sea)  BBC 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdsZz8StyV4&feature=related    256,000 hits 

Look closer.

These photographs are being widely distributed on the Internet, with the caprids misidentified as Bighorn Sheep and/or Chamois,  believing that the range of the Alpine Ibex in Italy was still limited to Gran Paradiso National Park. The absence in available photos of any full-horned rams faciliated the misidentification.

The location is actually Lake Cingino, a reservoir created by adding a dam and enlarging a small lake in the Valley of Antrona in the Italian Alps.

The animals on the dam areAlpine Ibex, Capra ibex, who apparently frequent the dam face in search of salts that accumulate on the rocks of the dam.

Maurizio Piazzai has a couple more photos of Alpine Ibex on the Lake Cingino dam here.
 

http://neveryetmelted.com/categories/europe/italy/
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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