It occurs in steep habitats. Even small patches in arable farmland and on the coast may be used, although cliffs and screes interspersed with scrub or forests are the most typical habitats. It often lives in very close proximity to humans, and is a familiar and popular species. It disperses readily and can rapidly colonise new areas if appropriate habitat is available. It is an important trophy-hunting species, with some trophy prices exceeding EUR 50,000. Hunting can be an important source of revenue to local communities in rural areas. The species can sometimes be an agricultural pest, causing damage to fruit trees, as Almond Prunus dulcis and European Olive Olea europaea.

The Iberian Wild Goat historically occurred throughout Iberia, including the French Pyrenees, Andorra, and Gibraltar. Of the four described subspecies, only two are extant: Capra pyrenaica victoriae and C. p. hispanica. The species is nowadays found from sea level to 3,480 m and occupies nearly 90,000 km² (Alados 1985, Pérez et al. 2002, Acevedo and Cassinello 2009, García-González et al. 2020).

Capra p. victoriae occurs in the central Iberian mountains (Sierra de Gredos), and has been re-introduced to a number of additional sites in Spain (Batuecas, La Pedriza, Riaño, Invernadeiro, Ancares, Val d’Aran) and Serra do Xurés, from where it escaped to Portugal) and France (Parc National des Pyrénées, Parc Naturel Regional des Pyrénées Ariegoise).

Capra p. hispanica occupies the arc of mountains that run along the Mediterranean coast, from Cádiz province to the Pyrenees (Serra de Montgri, another escape). It was also reintroduced in some sites in Spain (Montserrat, for example) and population reinforcements were developed (Muela de Cortes).

Capra p. lusitanica occurred in northern Portugal but died out at the end of the 19th century, and C. p. pyrenaica occurred in the Pyrenees but went extinct in 2000, when the last known individual was found dead. The latter subspecies occurred throughout the Pyrenees, and persisted until recently in Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park. Today the existence of subspecies is not accepted by most specialists.

Reintroductions
In the 1990s, an escaped herd from an enclosure of C. p. hispanica started the recolonization of the Spanish Pyrenees. After the extinction of C. p. pyrenaica at the beginning of the 21th century, C. p. victoriae was reintroduced in southern France in 2014 and in Catalonia (Spain). C. p.victoriae escaped from an enclosure in Galicia (northwestern Spain) in 1998 and colonized northern Portugal. All these subpopulations are expanding.

The species is protected under Appendix III of the Bern Convention and Annex V of the EU Habitats and Species Directive. Both subspecies occur in several Game Reserves and protected areas. However, most of the range occupied is outside of them. The species is protected in France and considered extinct in Andorra, even if two animals visited the country in 2015 after the reintroductions in France. Conservation measures proposed include establishing additional populations of Capra pyrenaica victoriae in other areas to strengthen its conservation status by reducing the possibility of an epizootic or some other catastrophe wiping out, or severely depleting, some present small population. When establishing new populations, founder effects should be considered, and sufficient numbers of animals should be introduced to maintain genetic diversity.