The animals' behaviour contrasts starkly with the antics of skiers and snowboarders, who sometimes leave the beaten track in search of powder snow and trigger potentially deadly avalanches.

The scientists at the Federal Institute of Avalanche and Snow Research observed the behaviour of a group of ibex and found that they only strayed up to 50 metres (yards) from their shelter for days or even a week after fresh snow had fallen.

"We found that after a major snowfall, ibex retreat to crevasses in the mountainside," Tobias Jonas, a researcher at the Davos-based institute, said on Wednesday.

"Unless there is an exceptional event, where a whole group is caught in one go, it is rare for ibex to be caught in an avalanche," he told the Swiss news agency ATS.

The ibex observed around a valley in the canton of Bern also behaved differently in the summer and in the winter.

During the cold, snowy season, they only roamed high in the mountainside by day, although in the summer male goats can travel about a dozen kilometres (miles) in the dark.

"They probably avoid treading on snow if visibility is restricted," Jonas concluded.

While ibex keep within 300 metres (yards) of their home during the winter, and stay above areas where avalanches are prevalent, during the summer they range over an area of up to 20 square kilometres (eight square miles), the researchers said.

The risk of avalanches increases after heavy new snowfall, as the snow cover remains unsteady until the new layer binds with the old snow below.

Ibex scramble along high rocky outcrops, living at altitudes of between 1,600 metres (5,280 feet) and 3,200 metres (10,560 feet).

An estimated 15,000 of the large mountain goats, a spectacular sight with their long backward-sloping horns, are currently established in the Swiss Alps.

Twenty-one people were killed in avalanches in the Swiss Alps last winter. Authorities blamed many of the incidents on skiers venturing away from prepared safe areas in search of fresh powder snow.

TERRA.WIRE