Mammals of Argentea

Roe
The roe is herbivorous of medium dimensions (weight 15/27 Kg). The male has horns caducous, small and little antlered (maximum 6 and very rarely 8 tips). He has a red-brownish coloration of summer, and grey-brownish of winter, with one wide posterior light spot. He lives in hill and mountain, until the higher limit of the vegetation to high stalk and also in the strip of the crabbed shrubs. He eats green leaves, berries and fruits of summer, dry grass and barks of winter. Usually the roe acts from the moment of the twilight and for all the night. He moves quickly with jumps and race. He lives in small branches (of 3 or 4 units) that some time, in winter, is more numerous. In summer He lives in pairs, on a delimited territory. The smalls, normally two every delivery, are born in May-June and are sexually mature to 14 months.

Wild Boar
It’s the progenitor of the domestic pigs. It’s covered from a thick bristly generally brown-greyish fur. An adult can reach 80-90 cm of height from the withers, the weight varied from the 50 to the 180 Kg. In the males both the upper incisive and those inferiors form long tusks. It’s omnivorous, he feed on berries, roots, tubers, glands, fruits, but also snails, worms and bugs, small vertebrate, eggs of birds that nest to earth and dead animals. He is active to the twilight and of night. He lives in branches, guided from the females. The adult males are solitary. The period of the mating is the winter. The females give birth between the beginning of the spring and the end of the summer until 10-12 cubs that they nurse for three months. The cubs until six months have a reddish cape with yellowish longitudinal stripes.

Beech Marten
The beech marten is of sure one of the more common mammals in Ticino and has been adapted very well to the presence of the man. The description of its main habitat is problematic because, even if originally the beech marten was an inhabitant of the forest, today we find it also near the houses, in agricultural and suburban areas. The aspect of the beech marten is characterised from a tapering and agile shape of the body, from the long tail and the white pectoral spot. The body measure from 45 to 55 cm, the tail from 23 to 28 cm and the coat is of tawny grey colour. The weight of an adult is about from 1,3 to 1,8 kg. The tracks of the beech marten and the marten are easily recognisable because generally on the land they move to leaps, leaving a series of parallel tracks, in which the trail of posterior legs coincide with the trail of fore legs. The dimensions of the tracks have a diameter of 4 - 5 cm. The feeding of the beech marten is not exclusively carnivorous. Studies made on its diet discovered that the consumption of about 40 types of berries and yield, of 35 species of mammals, 43 birds, 11 reptiles and rarely amphibious, bugs, worms, snails and other invertebrates. The type of feeding changed, like in the case of the fox, and it depend on the environment and on the alimentary availability, with evident variations depending on the season.

Dormouse
The dormouse look like a small squirrel, it climbs the trees and jumps from a branch to the other. It lives in the forests and it is diffused in Europe, Asia and Africa. It feed on pips of berries and eggs of little birds. During the summer it eats a lot to get in supply of fat that will consume during the seven months of the hibernation in which sleeps nearly continually. In the others five months it sleeps during the hours of light and when it is awake has a frenetic agitation of activity, it runs and jumps, hunts, looks for fruits, constructs the winter shelter and raises the cubs.

Hare
The Hare is an original animal of the steppe and lives mainly on the plain, preferably under the 1400 m., even if occasionally rises to higher altitudes. In Ticino this species had to abandon the plain, become a lot urbanized to shelter in the hilly areas. The weight of an adult hare varies from 3,5 to 5,5 kg and in a wild state it is impossible to distinguish the male from the female. That is possible only with the died animal on the base of the genital organs. Particularly striking are the ears that clearly exit from the whole of the body and the developed posterior legs, that allow to move with swift movements. The hare has a vegetarian diet and as other herbivorous animals to better exploit the substances in its food, passes the food two times through the digestive system. This particular type of digestion is called "coprophagy" or "ciecotrofismo". The sense of the sight, of hearing and of smell are very developed. The heart of the hare represents from 1 to 1,8% of the body weight, that is remarkable as regards as to other animals. The blood is pumped and transported effectively in the body; that explains its power, its resistance and its speed, than in case of escape can reach the 70 km/h. During the race the posterior legs surpass the fore legs, leaving the characteristic tracks of the hare on the land.

Hedgehog
The hedgehogs are small animals long 20-30 cm, with a tail of 1-4 cm, court ears and legs with 5 fingers. They have pricks, rigid hairs of fawn-coloured with dark bands to the extremity. They live in the country, in the forests, in the bushy areas, the woodsheds, they construct nests of grass or withered leaves, where they pass the winter in dormancy. They are sedentary animals, and they moved for little hundreds of meters from their house. They eat bugs, amphibians, lizards and small rodents; they are enemy of vipers, that they kill with great ability. It exits only the night, proceeding slowly, with a hopping pace. It explores the territory with curiosity, smelling whichever object that meets. If it hears a noise, it stops and its sharpness of the smell compensates the mediocre sight. So it rolls up, assuming the shape of a ball, a little flattened on one side and bristling with pricks in all the directions. The female, two times of the year, between April and August, gives birth to 3 - 7 small. The animal passes the winter in dormancy in the own lair. The hedgehogs are animals that can easy be naturalised in the garden, a common practice in the Anglo-Saxon Countries.

Red Squirrel
It’s the only arboreal squirrel, native of Europe. The colour of the fur varied on the grounds of the subspecies: generally in summer she is fawn- reddish with a darker area on the back and white on the stomach; the winter dress, instead, is grey-brownish. During the winter the dark forelocks on the ears are very visible, but are lost in spring. Capable climber, is able to climb quickly the log and to jump agile of branch in branch or until earth from remarkable heights. The tail is employed also like helm or balance, and, moreover, as other organs has an important function of communication with its similar ones. To earth it moves awkward, with expresses hops, and if the way to cover is long, it jumps on every tree that meets during the way. It’s a diurnal, sociable and tolerant animal; it accumulates supplies for the winter, that it passes in a partial dormancy. Males and females spend a solitary life for great part of the year, everyone in their territory. The nest, sphere shaped, is constructed near the log, the bifurcation of branches, 5-15 meters of height, and is lined with leaves, moss and spins of grass. They reproduce from the end of Decembers to September also with two litters of 3-6 knots and blind small, that after approximately 45 days begin their life of relation and after three months they are independent. They eat in prevalence vegetables: walnuts, hazelnuts, gems, buds, yield, roots, steles, barks, resins, leaves, seeds of conifers, acorns, chestnuts and berries; sometimes it can eat also eggs and larva of bugs.

Mole
The mole is a rare animal to see, because it passes the greater part of the time under earth, digging longest galleries. It has a streamlined and small body, approximately 15 cm, that allows it to move perfectly in the land. It has small eyes, but it sees very well. The legs with strong nails serve to plough the ground. It’s equipped with a particular fur, and the hair can be moved in every direction, to draw back without difficulty in the burrows. The mole is active both the day and the night, in the summery and winter season. To look for the preys, earthworms and larva, it uses the highly- developed senses of hearing and smell. It creates pantries of earthworms, knotting them, so they cannot escape. It lives both in plain and in mountain, also until 2000 meters of altitude, in cultivated fields, in meadows with mostly fresh and porous lands where it can easily dig its galleries. In the Park of Beigua it’s retraceable everywhere, with the exception of the pebbly zones and crust where it can’t dig its gallery.

Badger
The aspect of the badger is characterised from its weight (an adult weighs from 12 to 14 kg, sometimes also until 20), from the particularly developed nails and from the white snout with the black stripes. The length of the body varies from 60 to 70 cm and the tail is short (from 15 to 19 cm). The colour of the hair, mainly brown- silver, undergoes some changes in the flanks (more luminosity) and in legs (black). The fur changes twice a year, in spring and autumn. The badger traces are unmistakable for their dimensions, for the visible nails and because all the sole of the foot rests on the land during the movement. Its feeding is not very tied to the predation and it is made mainly of earthworms, vegetables (fruits) and invertebrate, in smaller measure, of eggs, micromammals, unfledged, etc. During the search of the nutriment, particularly of the earthworms, it often removes the grass, causing uneasiness in the meadows or the pastures. Sometimes it causes damages in the vineyards or other fruit and vegetable cultivation’s (for example the cultivation of strawberries or maize). Its activity is mostly nocturnal and a badger can remain active, without to return to the burrow for all one night. In the winter period it does not go in dormancy but the activity is remarkably reduced. In the case of a strong lowering of the temperature or the unfavourable atmospheric conditions, an animal can pass several weeks in the burrow. For this reason in autumn the animals bring withered grass and mosses, to stuff the premises where they spend long periods of rest. During these periods they use exclusively the fat, accumulated during the beautiful season. The badger is a social animal and they live together, there is not therefore one individual defence of the territories. Its life is tied to the burrow, that can be constantly occupied for several generations and can be therefore developed both in largeness and in complexity. The presence of a burrow, generally situated to the edge of the forest or in sunned areas, can be recognised from the tracks, from the paths, from the digging traces but also from the presence in the vicinities of small and little deep holes in which the animals deposit theirs excrements.

Fox
The fox presents a characteristic sharp snout, than renders it easily recognisable, the long and wide ears and the thick tail. The coat is dark red. It is in the habit of marking the territory with its urine, that is particularly odorous and persistent. It lives in the forests, but can be found also in heath, in the cultivated countries and mountain. Often it is approached the cities. The fox is a generally nocturnal and solitary animal; it feed on small rodent, rabbits, birds, bugs, earthworms, occasionally also on fruit and berries. The cubs are born in number of 4 - 5, inside the lairs, in spring. After approximately 6 weeks they are weaned.