Читать книгу Trekking in the Silvretta and Rätikon Alps. Tour of the Silvretta, the Prattigauer Hohenweg and the Ratikon Hohenweg plus 12 day routes онлайн

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The ibex is more elusive in the Silvretta and Rätikon Alps than the chamois, but when sighted, the adult male is a noble-looking creature, with its large, knobbly, scimitar-shaped horns. Short-legged and of stocky build, the adult male leads a more-or-less solitary existence until the autumn rut, when one dominant buck fights all-comers for the prize of a harem of females. Less stocky and with shorter horns than the male, the female ibex feeds within a group of other females and their young. Their coat is similar to that of the chamois, but without the black stripe along the spine or the white lower jaw.

The small, streamlined and long-tailed stoat inhabits the upper pasturelands and preys on ground-nesting birds, marmot cubs and even the mountain hare. In the summer months its fur is a russet fawn, with white underbelly and throat. In winter its coat turns completely white.

Both red and roe deer may be seen in the forested lower slopes and outlying meadows, while the red squirrel scampers among the pine and larch woods. In these same woods, jays and nutcrackers make their presence known with their distinctive cries of alarm; the nutcracker is well-named as it uses its strong beak to break open pine cones to get to the fatty seeds hidden inside.