At the Cingino Dam, located 7 kilometers (4 miles) southwest of Antrona Schieranco, province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in Piedmont, Italy, you will see some Alpine ibexes climbing up its wall.

The Cingino Dam is almost vertical. It is 160 feet high and these wild goats climb almost to the top. This species of goat lives in the European Alps, has split hooves with rubber-like soles. They are exceptional climbers... but watching them climb up this vertical wall is absolutely amazing! Why would they do this?

Their diet, which consists mostly of grass, gives them a huge craving for salt. Coincidentally, the wall of the Cingino Dam in Italy is built of salt-encrusted stones, with the really good, salty stone blocks near the top of the dam. So, to get to these mineral-rich salts, these goats do the seemingly impossible... they climb up a vertical wall.