Oblivious Marmot

Good job I only hunt with a long lens! I have never managed a blippable marmot shot as they rush off with high pitched whistles to warn the rest of the group. They are fascinating animals, true hibernators. Once winter arrives, alpine marmots will huddle next to each other and begin hibernation, a process which lowers their heart rate to five beats per minute and breathing to 1–3 breaths per minute, which uses up their stored fat supplies slowly, and usually allows them to survive the winter.

Look at my Flickr photos (https://www.flickr.com/photos/hilarysview/?) if you like, to get a better flavour of today's walk which was one of those 5 star days in the hills, walking in snow on the north slopes we could see, high up on a ridge, 28 male bouquetin seemingly observing us quite calmly. Then in the shadows of a big cliff, 3 ptarmigain scuttled away in their beautiful mid season plumage. Later on we saw a huge heard of chamois but they were on high alert. It is the hunting season after all, and the alpine café we had our apple pie in, was advertising "la chasse"......