Читать книгу Shorter Walks in the Dolomites. 50 varied day walks in the mountains онлайн

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Wildlife

One of the beauties of walking is the chance it gives you to observe the surprisingly abundant wildlife that inhabits these mountains. The easiest sightings are of marmots: adorable furry social creatures a bit like beavers, which live in extensive underground colonies and hibernate from October to April. In the summer months they forage for favourite flowers on grassy slopes, only returning to the safety of their burrows on the shrill warning cry of their omnipresent sentry, an older figure standing stiff and erect on a prominent rock.

The widespread conifer woods provide shelter for roe deer, although often you only catch a fleeting glimpse of them due to their shyness. Higher up, seemingly impossible rock faces and scree slopes are the ideal terrain for herds of fleet-footed chamois: mountain goats with short curved horns like crochet hooks. Another impressive and even more rare creature is the majestic ibex, sporting its distinctive sturdy grooved horns. Due to overzealous hunters, they became extinct here back in the 1700s. However, healthy groups survived in both a royal game reserve in Italy’s Valle d’Aosta and the Engadine in Switzerland. Specimens were brought back to Dolomite habitats around 50 years ago, and there are now well-established groups.