Niederhorn Wildlife Photography (Ibex)

In wildness is the preservation of the world.
Henry David Thoreau

Niederhorn wildlife photography from the ridge high above Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland — one of the best places in the Alps to meet wild Alpine ibex (Steinbock) at close range. The colony here is remarkably relaxed around walkers, so summer mornings bring old males with long, ridged horns grazing the alpine turf, kids picking through flowering alpenrose, and the occasional stand-off on a rocky cliff with the valley falling away below. Alpine choughs wheel overhead on the updraughts. These images follow the wildlife from first light on the summit ridge to backlit silhouettes against the sky.