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June/July 2016
Western Alps : Part 8
Marmots & Chamois
young Alpine Marmots (Marmota marmota)
If you take a walk anywhere above the treeline in the Alps the loud, piercing, high pitched alarm calls of Alpine Marmots will track your progress along the trails. They are, at times, not very easy to spot and all you will see of them is a glimpse of a fat rear-end disappearing down its burrow.
young Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota)
In the national parks or other places where hunting is prohibited, however, they can sometimes be very confiding if you remain quiet and keep your movements slow.
young Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota)
At one location, a footpath I was following bisected a colony of marmots and I was so captivated by the antics of the young marmots playing at the entrance to their burrow just 7m in front of me, that ended up spending 2 days sitting there photographing them.
young Alpine Marmots (Marmota marmota)
Although almost all of the photographs on this page are of a single family (due to the angle of the light being best for them), I was in fact surrounded by marmots most of the time, and at one point an adult marmot was sunbathing at the entrance to its burrow less than a metre behind me, completely unconcerned by my presence!
young Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota)
Alpine Marmot is the largest European member of the squirrel family and is common on open ground and pastures above 1200m altitude.
young Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota)
Marmots live in family groups consisting of an adult male, an adult female and their young less than 3 years old. Several families may live in close proximity to form large colonies.
young Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota) |
 young Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota) |
C'mon Mum! Give me some attention!
Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota)
The young marmots in this family didn't stray far from the burrow entrances, but the adults regularly foraged up to a hundred metres away in the adjacent meadow.
adult Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota)
adult Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota)
Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota)
Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota)
young Alpine Marmots (Marmota marmota)
young Alpine Marmots (Marmota marmota)
young Alpine Marmots (Marmota marmota) at play
Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota)
The marmot colony where all of the above photos were taken was located at the base fo the boulder field on the right-hand side of the above photograph.
Alpine Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra)
One benefit of sitting quietly beside the marmot colony was that this female Chamois and her kid didn't notice me until they were only about 20m from me!
Alpine Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra)
Like most goats, Chamois have incredible climbing skills and can scale near vertical cliffs, so this steep scree slope was absolutely no problem for it.
Alpine Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra)
Ray Wilson owns the copyright of all images on this site.
They may not be used or copied in any form without prior written permission.
raywilsonphotography@googlemail.com