Parcopedia

Larch (Larix decidua) is a hardy conifer with deciduous needles that thrives in harsh alpine climates. It grows on poor soils and pioneers the way for more complex forests.

The marmot is a diurnal rodent that lives in alpine meadows. It feeds on plants and insects, digs complex burrows, and hibernates from October to April. The young are born after 30-35 days of gestation and remain in the burrow for 40 days. The main predators are the golden eagle and terrestrial carnivores.

Green alder (Alnus viridis) forms dense thickets (alder groves) in the water catchment areas and on the slopes where the water table is shallow and the soil is very moist, often with water seepage and surface runoff.

For years a population of rock sparrow has been nesting in the mowed and grazed meadows of the upper Susa Valley, in two Sites of the Natura 2000 network managed by the Parks of the Cottian Alps. It has colonized an area of ​​about 13 square kilometers on the south-southwest slope in the municipalities of Sestriere and Cesana Torinese, between 1350 and 2000 meters above sea level. The territory is characterized by xeric pastures and mountain meadows that in recent decades have seen a drastic decrease in traditional agro-pastoral practices, with the consequent risk of invasion by shrubs and trees and loss of the high degree of plant and animal biodiversity linked to mowed and grazed meadows.

The Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is a conifer that shows a high ability to adapt to the environment: it lives from the valley floor up to 2000 meters above sea level.

The ibex is a large wild goat. Very confident with humans, it inhabits the entire Alpine arc.

The Swiss pine is the only native pine with needles grouped in bundles of 5 and produces cylindrical cones, purple in color, containing seeds wrapped in a hard shell (pine nuts)

The rock partridge (Lagopus muta) is an alpine bird the size of a pigeon that lives at high altitudes, above trees and shrubs. Up there, at the border between high-altitude meadows and rocky areas, generally between 1800 and 2700 meters, going up beyond 3000 meters in summer and autumn.

Wild narcissus dots alpine meadows with its tufts of highly fragrant flowers featuring white petals and yellow corona.

In the territories where today the Parks of the Cottian Alps are located, and in general throughout the entire Alpine arc, the wolf became extinct between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century due to human hunting activity. Starting from the 1970s, from a small nucleus of wolves of the subspecies Canis lupus italicus present in the Apennines of Central Italy (between 100 and 200 individuals), a process of numerical growth and spontaneous recolonization began, leading the species to spread throughout the entire peninsula.