The reasons behind the extinction of this species are largely unknown, although a number of hypotheses have been suggested including the inability to compete well with other species like livestock and Chamois ( Rupicapra pyrenaica pyrenaica ) for food, infections and diseases caught from domestic livestock, poaching, infertility and inbreeding problems, and climatic conditions. (Caprinae Specialist Group 2000; García-González, Escos & Alados, 1996), along with the Pyrenean Ibex's attraction as a hunting trophy (Day 1981). According to Guy Beaufoy, a policy officer of WWF Spain, the "Pyrenean Ibex had disappeared because the Spanish government acted too late to save it. He said "Although hunting had reduced the animal's numbers to fewer than a hundred by the turn of the last century, a management plan to preserve it was not put into place until 1993, when only about 10 individuals remained" (McCarthy 2000). In general it can be said that its extinction is Europe's first great conservation failure of the twenty-first century, as the European Union acted too late as well.