Ahigh-pitched whistle penetrates the cool mountain air as I slowly ascend the slopes on a hiking path that was once part of King Victor Emmanuel II’s network of hunting trails. The whistle, I am told, is a marmot’s warning of intruders. It sounds like Morse code – short dashed whistles for ground alert, one long sustained note for a possible air strike. I squint my eyes towards the sound but see no movement. With such a sophisticated alarm system, it is no wonder marmots are difficult to spot. However, there is another mountain animal I had come to see: the Alpine ibex.
The King came here to hunt the prized ibex, a species of wild mountain goat characterised by its bold and sturdy horns. But by the end of the 19th century, wildlife populations all around the European Alps were in such decline that they faced extinction, especially the ibex, so King Victor Emmanuel III donated the hunting reser ve to the Italian state in 1920 to create a protected area
