There are not only chamois, ibex and marmots in the Gran Paradiso National Park, the oldest in Italy. Otters can also be encountered. To do this, however, you have to go to a particular place: the “Water and Biodiversity” Visitor Center in Rovenaud, in Valsavarenche. Not a zoo, not a simple park, but an oasis of unique biodiversity, as the curator and naturalist Caterina Ferrari explains: “The goal of the center – she says – is the conservation of high-altitude aquatic ecosystems, in addition to teaching and scientific research. The intent is to restore the original biodiversity and to favor the reintroduction of the otter: an endangered species given that in recent years it has suffered a drastic decline due to environmental transformations made by man ».
The entrance to the Water and Biodiversity Center in Rovenaud, in the Valle d’Aosta Valsavarenche
Once present throughout Europe, in the second half of the twentieth century this aquatic predator underwent a drastic decline which led to its extinction in much of the continent. Today the trend seems to be for a slight increase in the population. «In a well-preserved environment – adds the curator – the role of predator of the otter represents a natural and positive event. On the contrary, its disappearance can lead to an alteration of the aquatic ecosystem. The predators in fact perform a selective action towards the preys and regulate their density, and vice versa ».
It is no coincidence that this carnivorous mustelid represents the symbol of aquatic ecosystems: the center of Rovenaud, managed directly by the park, hosts four specimens in semi-freedom that can be encountered during the visit. But in the Gran Paradiso Park there are four other species: stone marten, weasel, marten, badger and ermine.
The indoor aquarium of the otters
Everything in the center of Valsavarenche is linked to water: you are completely immersed in a well-preserved ecosystem, three streams, bridges and dense vegetation, but also multimedia installations, videos, aquariums and what remains of a mill and a old sawmill. This summer the visits are open on weekends until 12 September; Saturday 28 August there will also be a special night session on the occasion of the park’s 99th birthday party.
From otters to exotic and medicinal plants: just move from Valsaverenche to Valnontey, in Cogne. We are always inside the park and here you can visit the Paradisia Alpine Botanical Garden, managed by the Gran Paradiso Foundation: 10 thousand square meters and a thousand species of plants and flowers from the Alps, Apennines and mountains from all over the world to be discovered by following different itineraries and thematic routes. A small microcosm of alpine biodiversity: each plant is accompanied by a tag bearing its scientific name. The yellow ones indicate the species present in Italy, the white ones the exotic flora, the red ones the medicinal plants, and if there is the symbol of a skull they are poisonous. The Paradisia Garden can be visited alone or with a guide, every day at set times.
The Paradisia alpine botanical garden, in Valnontey in Cogne
Still on the subject of alpine fauna, a curiosity that comes from Trentino. The animals do not meet up close but the emotion is great all the same: the “Trentino Camera Trapping” site in fact shares the most evocative shots collected by a group of volunteers who for some years have been supporting forestry personnel in monitoring wildlife. It can be the furtive step of a fox, the fatigue of a chamois that challenges the snow, the somersaults of two bear cubs playing in the grass: just click on the new portal curated by Muse researchers, the Trento Science Museum .