Читать книгу Trekking in the Apennines. The Grande Escursione Appenninica онлайн

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 1851m Monte Marmagna (Stage 22)

 1830m Monte Orsaro (Stage 22)

Wildlife

Roe deer and timid fallow deer are numerous all along the Apennine chain and are easy to spot grazing on the edge of woods in the early morning and late afternoon. Majestic red deer are more rarely seen, mostly in the heavily forested Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi. Originally introduced from northern Europe in the 1800s in the interests of the game reserve belonging to the Grand-Duke of Tuscany Leopold II, their numbers were boosted in the 1950s and the population, now estimated at around two thousand, is the largest in the whole of the Apennines.

A more recent arrival is the marmot, which hails from the Alps. Modest colonies can be observed in the northern Apennines at elevations between 1000 and 2000m. A burrowing rodent resembling a beaver or ground hog, its habitat is stony pasture slopes. The trick in spotting these cuddly comical creatures is to listen out for the piercing shriek of alarm from the sentry on the lookout for eagles, their sole enemy. Marmots spend the summer feasting on flowers and grass with the aim of doubling their body weight in preparation for hibernation around October; they re-emerge in springtime.