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Baby marmot

It is hard to miss hearing the European alpine marmot (Marmota marmota) with its shrill whistle warning of imminent danger or seeing a well-padded rear scampering over grassy hillocks towards its burrow. These comical beaver-like vegetarians live in large underground colonies and 8000–10,000 were reported at the last count. Protected now, they were once hunted for their fat, used in ointments believed to be a cure for rheumatism. The belief was unfounded, however, and the practice seemingly arose from a linguistic misunderstanding: the real ‘marmot oil’ for treating aches and pains actually comes from the so-called marmot plum or Briançon apricot, whose yellow stones produced an oil helpful in extracting the active ingredients from rhododendron galls.

Red foxes may be of little interest to British visitors, but the easiest way to spot one of these pretty creatures is to wait outside a refuge at nightfall, as the scavengers come for titbits in the rubbish.

A sizeable carnivore currently returning gradually westward through the Alps is the mysterious lynx. Sightings of the tufted-ear feline with grey-brown mottled fur have already been reported by hunters and rangers in Valle d'Aosta, where it prefers the shelter of low altitude woods, the habitat of its favourite prey, the roe deer. (It is also known to hunt old ibex who are slower on their feet.)