Next time you do an “Ollie” or an “Air to Fakie” on the slopes, spare a thought for the wildlife. You might be freaking them out.
Snowboarders and skiers are encroaching on the habitats of alpine fauna, including ptarmigan, black grouse, deer and chamois, and their presence is causing the animals’ stress levels to soar. Concentrations of the stress hormone corticosterone and its metabolites are 17 per cent higher in the faeces of grouse that live in areas frequented by boarders and skiers, while levels in stressed birds may soar by 60 per cent, according to Raphaël Arlettaz and colleagues…
