576 Abruzzo and wildlife

I live in Marche in the country. Hunting is very popular here and when its time there are lots of hunters about. Having said that there is lots of wildlife about, birds, bats, boar, deer, hedgehogs, porcuspine, pheasant, badger I can continue. It is my opinion that the hunting is partly the tradition, partly for food and partly to prevent being overrun. As long as my dog and children are safe I have no problem with it. Saying that they keep very much away from the house and the dog and children keep to the house , when they are about.

I also live in Le Marche Andy, there is generally a lot of bird action around in spite of the actions of the mighty hunters, ground game is scarce, but showing a little improvement, if you were to make a bit of an effort to attract the birds to your garden, they will come, and with a bit of enlightenment, the hunters might not, I thnk they only need a friendly nod, and request that they hunt away from the garden, or, it may be that as I have Lurchers, and a Marremano guard dog which dislikes any change in it's environment they are reluctant to come too close, unless it's to chat about dogs.

We also live in the countryside. Each morning we have a dawn chorus, which when it wakes the children up at 5am is not quite so welcome, the birds also have another sing song at dusk. We have had wild boar in the garden and bats in the bedroom. We have also had pheasants in the garden, sadly, although the hunters managed to deprive him of some of his tail feathers he forgot the green cross code and is no more. There are also plenty of foxes around. Although the hunters abound during the season, I have yet to be convinced as to how successful they really are. It seems it is more of a social thing and an excuse to fire off a few cartridges than a real threat to the wildlife, only the very organised and controlled wild boar hunts seem ever to hit anything.
Regards
Anne2

[QUOTE=andy]Hi all

Probably a different type of question for those who live in this region.

We were visiting Abruzzo in August with a view to buying a property ( not our first time ) and we like the sounds of the dawn and dusk chorus and the fact that in England we are surrounded by wildlife. I have my concerns that the Italian way of life, for some, is in general, if it moves shoot it, and whilst I am not adverse to game shooting myself, I eat what I kill and see no point or fun in shooting Birds of prey or sparrows etc.

My understanding from threads on this site is that there is an absence of wildlife? is this so or am I misinterpreting the threads. It may seem a silly thread but we intend to buy rural and expect to be surrounded by nature in all its forms

Thanks Andy

Thanks[/QUOTE]
Yes,you have taken things a little too literally in fact there is not much hunting going on any more due to the fact it's now so expensive and restricted -the number of hunters in italy has diminished by 2/3 rds in the last five years.In Abruzzo there are bears,wolves,foxes,wild cats,real squirrels,badgers,eagles,falcons,buzzards,wild boar,a very wide variety of bird life,snakes even now rare moths (saw the death's head hawk moth the other day as well as the swallow tail butterfly)i don't think you will be feeling a lack of nature around you......................

Thankyou all for your replies.
It is refreshing to see that there were constructive threads and that it didn't turn into a personal disagreement between forumers.

regards Andy

[QUOTE=andy]
My understanding from threads on this site is that there is an absence of wildlife? is this so or am I misinterpreting the threads. It may seem a silly thread but we intend to buy rural and expect to be surrounded by nature in all its forms
[/QUOTE]

We have a small farm in Abruzzo and it's full of wildlife. We have cinghiale and I suspect the occasional wolf in the bosco in the lowest part of the land, and when I go hunting for firewood I usually get pelted with chestnuts by the local black squirrels. They think it's *their* wood.

We also have an eagle and two different species of falcon which I haven't been able to identify (yet).

Lotaresco, it IS "their" wood, they live there, you only visit it and pinch their wood... ;)

[QUOTE=GeorgeS]Lotaresco, it IS "their" wood, they live there, you only visit it and pinch their wood... ;)[/QUOTE]

Until they pay rent, it's my wood.

Unfortunately Italy is not an animal-loving country like the U.K.

Animals are not treated very well in general, and there are stray dogs everywhere - when I first came to the UK, I was suprised by their absence here!

Writer Muriel Sparks, who I believes lives in Tuscany, had her dogs poisoned on numerous occasions. Indeed my cousin had his dog poisoned many years ago for no apparent reason.

I am hoping that you Brits will teach Italy a lesson in that respect!!!!

you might well be pleased to hear things are changing in this respect.... domestic animals are now protected under law... indeed those strays you now see have the protection of the mayor and the commune who are responsable for their welfare and safety

animals are now microchipped and the habit of dumping the dogs on the streets while families went on holiday for august is now much less of a problem because the microchip tells who the owner is and the fines outweigh the cost of finding kennels to look after the pet

there are many animal recue centres now also.... cases of cruelty appear on the news and often animals that have suffered with humans are featured as is the punishment to those that have carried out the act....

ok ... its not all wonderful... some italian drivers still think its a sport to run over dogs and cats... and the death count on the road is high.... but slowly it is changing ....

poisoning still goes on ... but people are worried they might get found out now because it is not accepted so easily by the majority....

so life has progressed here ... laws are in place and much like any new law gradually people will learn to think along its lines and realise that there is no value in kicking around something that is doing you no harm

One of the major reasons Abruzzo appealed to me is because of the abundant wildlife and the fact that so much of the territory is protected natural habitat.

Adriatica - the bears in Abruzzo are referred alternately as brown bears and as Marsican bears - are they just two names for the same thing or is the Marsican bear a subspecies of the brown bear?

The Marsican brown bear is a spearate sub species (Ursus arctos marsicanus) of the brown bear or grizzly bear (Ursus arctos). It's smaller than the grizzly.

[QUOTE=lotaresco]The Marsican brown bear is a spearate sub species (Ursus arctos marsicanus) of the brown bear or grizzly bear (Ursus arctos). It's smaller than the grizzly.[/QUOTE]

Thank you! Wildlife is something of a passion for me and it is these little details that I find fascinating.