Favourite Alpine furry friends you could see when walking

Ibex or Steinbock or wild goat
Mostly they live above the tree line, even to 4000m. Some hoofed animals (such as a donkey or a horse) have difficulty walking on rocky and steep trails even though donkeys are used in Nepal they still slip from time to time. However the hooves of a Steinbock have two parts, an elastic part and a hard part. The elastic part, the sole, “sticks” better to rocks than the soles of any hiking boot. Also the two “fingers” of the hoof can spread enabling “grip” on sharp protruding rocks and also helps while braking on a steep descent.
Photo: Steinbock by Gregoire Wallert

Chamois or Gemse 
These live lower than the Steinbock and also look like small goats. You will often see these from the Gondola as it approaches the Mannlichen station from Wengen. These guys are fast. You can be walking downhill through  forest and hear a whosh, scramble and a rush of rocks maybe, Yep, it was a Gemse that you woke up and now in full flight down the hill, you might see it or probably not.
Running at a speed of 50 kilometres per hour and able to jump 2m, they can live to 15 years if they avoid problems like hunting season, avalanches and natural predators of Wolves or Lynxes. These predators are also making a comeback in some alpine zones but they are so shy , it is difficult to determine their movements.
Photo: Gemse by Wolfgang Sojer

Foxes are typically found in the forests. One day when I was walking down from Mannlichen to Wengen and shortly before Wengen in the forest there, I stopped in amazement. Crossing the path in front of me, in no hurry at all, was a fox. He turned and looked at me – honestly! And then kept on his way into the forest. 
They live in small family groups, not in packs. Mostly feasting on rats and mice and a marmot if they are lucky, they do bother the local farmers around lambing time. 
Photo: Fox  by David Mark
 

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Rothirsch or Red deer
Beautiful and majestic, they are rare to find even though they live around 3000 metres and for about 15 years. Quite the fashion animal, the colour of their coat varies depending on the season, gender and age. Apart from the facial hair on the mouth, all hair is changed twice a year. 
I have only seen one once in a forest on the way to Oberberg. The trail leads along the "Sefinen Lütschine" to Flirten, then climbing, around 400 vertical metres, up to Oberberg. The trail continues to the Rotstock Hut. 
In autumn if you are making an evening walk up high you could hear a roar and that will be the male deer. You could then hear several of them as the males compete for female attention. All deer make short barking sounds when frightened and they are able to move their ears independently to accurately detect the direction of sounds.
Did you know that Red deer were used to pull coaches during Roman Era in the festivals related to the worship of goddess Diana, the hunting goddess?
Photo: Red deer by Steve Bidmead

Marmot 
When you are walking along a trail and hear a high pitched whistle, it could be the Marmot security guard whistling to its community that someone is coming through their territory. Marmots live in communities, usually in complex burrows with 'emergency exits" often made under piles of rocks above 1500 metres. As you walk from Kleine Scheidegg to Rind Hut to Wengeralp, there is a community on the left as the path bends to the right before dropping down to Wenngeralp. Several times I have seen them sun-baking when I have been very quiet to come around the corner. It helps that it is not a well walked path.
These vegetarians hibernate through the winter after gorging themselves over summer. Pregnancy is about a month and the young stay home for the first 3 -   weeks and drinking milk. They can live for 15 years if the foxes and hunters don’t find them.
Photo: Marmut by Francis fda54

What about bears?
There is the bear on the Bern flag and that is likely all in this area.
After a brown bear was shot by a hunter in 1904, they were extinct from the Swiss Alps. On July 28, 2005, a student from Germany photographed a bear in the Swiss National Park - the first bear in Switzerland for 100 years! (www.kora.ch) 
Brown bears are an unlikely threat hiking in the Jungfrau region. You may have seen them on the ZDF Bergdoktor program in Austria but since March 2008 there has only been a few wild bears sighted in Switzerland and in the east. 
In July 2006 Switzerland set up a "bear plan" to promote coexistence between humans and bears. A bear, known as M13, was believed to have killed several sheep and was first seen in the Engadine in April 2012.  He was fitted with a transmitter, which showed him wandering between Switzerland, Italy and Austria.  Towards the end of 2012 M13 appeared in the Val Poschiavo, where he killed a donkey, destroyed beehives, and broke into a holiday home. His behaviour led the environment office to classify him as a "problem bear" posing a safety risk and shot on February 19, 2016. There were hundreds of messages mourning his death on his face book page. https://www.facebook.com/OrsoM13

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