Northern Chamois inhabit steep, rocky areas mostly in the mountains, utilising a variety of habitats including alpine meadows, open rocky areas, mixed broadleaf woodland, and coniferous woodland (Pedrotti and Lovari 1999). The species feeds on grasses, herbs, leaves of trees, buds, shoots, and fungi (Sägesser and Krapp 1986). The gestation period is 170 days, and the number of offspring is usually one per pregnancy. Females are sexually mature at 2.5 years, while males mature 1-1.5 years later. The lifespan is 14-22 years. Females and kids occur in herds of 5-30 individuals, while adult males remain solitary.

The Northern Chamois is native to mountainous parts of central and southern Europe and Asia Minor, where it occurs as seven subspecies: R. r. asiatica, R. r. balcanica, R. r. carpatica, R. r. cartusiana, R. r. caucasica, R. r. rupicapra and R. r. tatrica (Shackleton 1997, Pedrotti and Lovari 1999). It occurs from 200 m to 3,500 m asl. It has been introduced to Czechia.

Only five subspecies fall into the geographic range of this assessment: R. r. balcanica, R. r. carpatica, R. r. cartusiana, R. r. rupicapra and R. r. tatrica. For information on R.r. asiatica and caucasica, please refer to the global assessment of northern chamois (Anderwald et al. 2020).

The subspecies R. r. balcanica occurs in Croatia (Dinara and Biokovo Mts.), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria (four main massifs), and Greece. In Serbia, it inhabits the mountain Tara, the area around the Lim River, Đerdapska klisura and Zlot. In Kosovo, it occurs in the mountains of Prokletije, Mokra Gora, Koritnik and Šar Planina. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it inhabits the mountains of Zelengora, Prenj, Čvrsnica, Čabulja, Veleža, Bjelašnica, Treskavica and Sušica. In Montenegro, it is found in the mountains of Durmitor, Prokletije and Orjen, and in the Tara River canyon. In Bulgaria, there are five distinct sub-populations: Western Rhodopes, Rila, Pirin, Vitosha and Central Balkan. The population in Vitosha was reintroduced after 2000 (Valchev et al.2010). A reintroduction project has also started in the Western Stara Planina, but requires additional animals in order to be successful. In Greece, there are 30 distinct subpopulations forming six discrete population blocks in the following mountain ranges: Northern Pindus (12 subpopulations), Central and Southern Pindus (7), South mainland mountains (5), N-NW mountains (1), Mount Olympus (1), Rhodope Mountains (4) (Papaioannou 2010, 2015, 2016a, 2016b, 2020; Papaioannou and Kati 2016). The first three, and possibly the fourth, seem to share a common gene pool, whereas the rest diverge slightly (Papaioannou et al. 2019). The area of occupancy at the national level is estimated between 1,950–2,475 km² (EEA 2019, Papaioannou 2020). Based on a population genetics study of Balkan Chamois across its distribution range, the subspecies forms three genetic clusters with individuals from Serbia and Bulgaria assigned to two separate clusters, while individuals from the other countries belonged to the same cluster (Rezić et al. 2022).

The subspecies R. r. carpatica occurs in many populations in Romania throughout the Transylvanian Alps and the Carpathian mountains. There have been a number of successful re-introductions (Shackleton 1997).

The subspecies R. r. cartusiana is endemic to France, where it is restricted to a 350 km² area of the Chartreuse limestone massif, centred around Grenoble, at the western edge of the French Alps.

The subspecies R. r. rupicapra is found in Austria, southern Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, eastern France, Slovenia and NW Croatia. While the range has remained similar to the previous assessment in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, it has increased in France as a result of natural and assisted recolonisations. Due to translocations of individuals in the past, this subspecies has been introduced to Czechia (the Sudeten Mountains, spreading to the Mount Śnieżnik range in Poland) and Slovakia (the Great Fatra Mountains and Slovenský raj Mountains) where it has established free-living populations (Urban and Malina 2017).

The subspecies R. r. tatrica has a small island-like distribution range of some 300 km² and occurs in the open habitats above the tree line in the Tatra Mountains of Poland and Slovakia, including the ranges of Western, High and Belianske Tatra Mountains (Jamrozy et al.2007). In Slovakia, it had also been introduced to the Low Tatra Mountains (Shackleton 1997), but this population has a restricted range of 400-450 ha (Urban and Malina 2017) and is now hybridised with introduced R. r. rupicapra (Zemanová et al. 2015).

The species is listed on Appendix III of the Bern Convention and in Annex V of the EU Habitats and Species Directive (higher protection applies to some subspecies). Chamois occur in many protected areas. In general, conservation recommendations that apply to all subspecies include ensuring that any harvest is sustainable (e.g. through research, monitoring, legislation, and international cooperation), reducing poaching (e.g. through legislation, enforcement, education and awareness-raising, and provision of alternative livelihoods where necessary), reducing the impacts of human disturbance (e.g. by providing refugia in areas with intense tourism and hunting pressure), preventing habitat degradation, and protecting the genetic integrity of populations (by avoiding translocations of 'foreign' subspecies that could hybridise with the local population). Monitoring of all subspecies is important, especially those that are rare and/or declining. Due to increasing evidence of negative effects on chamois through interspecific competition with Red Deer, Red Deer (re-)introductions should be avoided in areas with chamois presence, and due to the danger of disease transmission from domestic livestock to wild ungulates, prophylaxis of domestic animals against infectious keratoconjunctivitis should become routine. Climate change may lead to conservation problems through habitat alteration and direct or indirect effects on reproduction/survival. Particularly the uncertainties in population trends in central Europe highlight the importance of methodologically consistent long-term monitoring programmes.

R. r. balcanica is listed in Annexes II and IV of the EU Habitats and Species Directive. In Croatia, one of two Balkan Chamois habitats – the Dinara Mountain - was listed in the Natura 2000 sites in 2019, but legal hunting still takes place. In Greece, the conservation status of the Balkan Chamois at the national level is U2-(i) (EEA, 2019), and it is included in the Greek National Red Data book as NT (Near Threatened; Legakis and Maragou, 2009). It is a fully protected species, and hunting has been banned throughout the country since 1969 (Law 86/69). Most of the subspecies’ population ranges have been included in a no-hunting legislation status (wildlife sanctuaries). In addition, several chamois ranges overlap - entirely or partly - with Natura 2000 sites, either SCIs or SPAs (Papaioannou 2016a,c, 2020), and most of them are located within the boundaries of protected areas (e.g. extended National Parks, namely: Northern Pindos, Olympus, Oiti, Rodope, Tzoumerka-Peristeri-Aracthos gorge). The Greek Ministry of Environment has recently (2015) implemented monitoring projects for species listed on Annex 17 of the European directive 92/43 EU (EEA 2019) - including the Balkan chamois - and the National Action Plan for this subspecies was accomplished (Papaioannou 2020). In Bulgaria, Balkan chamois have been protected since 2007 (with poaching fines of 2,500 euro and up to 5 years of imprisonment) and a National Action Plan was developed. The species is listed as Endangered in the National Red Book, but the status of U1 vs. U2 has been disputed. Although a small population growth at the national level was registered during the previous reporting period, the Balkan Chamois still inhabits less than half of its potential habitat in Bulgaria, and the present population size is several times lower than the potential number for the country. The distribution in Rila, Pirin and the Central Balkan is mostly within the borders of national parks where hunting is strictly prohibited, and almost all present Bulgarian populations and the majority of the potential chamois habitat are in Natura 2000 sites. The main tool to decrease poaching in Bulgaria is through community-based conservation, i.e. encouraging local hunters through a small number (35-55) of hunting permits, and education of mountaineers and local communities. Under the National Action Plan, a National Chamois working group was established in order to coordinate the activities of the plan, but it deals mainly with hunting derogations (Avramov et al. 2010). A few joint control actions against illegal trophies of Chamois were carried out. More than fifteen trophies were confiscated and trials started against some of the most famous poachers. A large-scale media campaign was initiated against poaching. The Ministry of Environment organized the first National Chamois Counting in 2009. The counts continue but their reliability has been compromised in the last years. Monitoring of Chamois needs to be revised and improved.

R. r. cartusiana has been subject to intensive conservation management, including reintroductions. The subspecies was distinguished by Couturier (1938), while it was not distinguished from R. r. rupicapra during certain management actions and in many reports (Corti 1995). This uneven recognition has had substantial impacts on its conservation until nowadays. R. r. cartusiana was not assessed at the subspecific level in the Red List of Mammals of France in 2009 (UICN France et al. 2009), while it was listed as vulnerable with unknown population trend in the Red List of Mammals of France in 2017 (UICN France et al. 2017). It was considered as formerly abundant in Chartreuse, but overhunting and poaching probably put the population at risk of extinction from WWII to 1970 (Rouland 1980). Restocking and restoration programmes are cited in some references of grey literature (Corti 2006). During the 1974-76 period, 29 R. r. rupicapra individuals from the Bauges hunting reserve and the Markstein were translocated to the northwestern part of the Chartreuse (Rouland 1980). During the 1990-92 period, 26 chamois assumed to be R. r. cartusiana were translocated from the southwestern part of the Chartreuse to the south-eastern part (Michallet and Toïgo 2000). In practice, monitoring focused on estimating the relative abundance of chamois in Chartreuse is only partially fulfilled and suggests high interannual variability and overall stability during the 2010-2016 period (e.g. Chantreau and Gaudry 2019). The conservation of R. r. cartusiana should incorporate improved monitoring and reporting of abundance, sustainable management of hunting pressure and active management of the risk of extinction by hybridisation and introgression, beyond monitoring pressures from interspecific competition.

R. r. tatrica is listed in Annexes II* and IV of the EU Habitats and Species Directive. It has been strictly protected by law since 1868 on the Polish side of the Tatra Mountains (the world's first parliamentary act on the protection of animal species). In spite of being strictly protected by law, numbers of Tatra Chamois continued to decline. In the mid 20th century, the whole Tatra Massif became protected in the form of national parks: the Slovakian Tatranský Národný Park was formed in 1949 and the Polish Tatra National Park was formed in 1954. Moreover, the Tatras have been designated as an International Biosphere Reserve and are one of the areas protected by the Natura 2000 network in the frame of the Habitats Directive. Today, the entire population and its habitats are protected year-round in both the Polish and Slovakian national parks. The species is listed in the Polish Red Data Book as critically endangered. R. r. rupicapra introduced into Slovakia should be managed to minimise the threat of genetic introgression from dispersing males into the populations of R. r. tatrica. The population of R. r. tatrica in the Low Tatras, affected by introgression of R. r. rupicapra, should be maintained separately from the pure R. r. tatrica in the High Tatras (Zemanová et al. 2015).