Lo stambecco che sale per il sale
Posted on 08. Feb, 2011 by Serena in Nature
Yes, I know it’s a bit of a strange title! Let’s see if this little blog will explain its meaning.
Lo stambecco – plural gli stambecchi – (ibex) is a species of mountain goat which is well known for its prodigious climbing abilities. See these pages:http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capra_ibex http://www.parchionline.it/stambecco.htm
The Stambecco’s usual habitat is le pareti rocciose (the rocky walls) high up in the mountains above the tree line. Its diet consists of up to 15kg of erba (grass) a day, plus rametti di larice e altre conifere, ginepro, muschi e licheni (small branches of larch and other conifers, juniper, moss and lichen). In the spring it searches for sali minerali (mineral salts) which it gathers by licking rocks.
Recently gli stambecchi have found a convinient new source for salt: the almost sheer face of la diga del lago Cingino (the Cingino lake dam) which is situated at 2,250 meters above sea level in the Parco Naturale della Valle Antrona, in Piemonte.
Yes, those little dots on the wall of the dam really are stambecchi!
The crafty stambecchi have discovered that the rocks with which the dam is constructed exude abundant quantities of mineral salts. Riescono a scalare il muro della diga grazie agli zoccoli larghi ed elastici che fanno presa come una tenaglia nelle fessure della roccia (They are able to climb the dam wall thanks to their large elastic hooves which grip like pincers in the fissures between the rocks).
Try a search on the internet using the keywords ‘stambecchi’ and ‘video’, and you will discover quite a few videos which demonstrate their amazing abilities.
So, back to the title ‘Lo stambecco che sale per il sale’ … would anyone care to translate?
CIAO! Serena,
I am learning italian but guess the root is “salire.”
Therefore, it would be “the ibex climbs for the salt?” My wife and I are big fans of your blog. We are using it to prepare for a trip to Bologna.
OK, my Italian is not fantastic but my translation attempt is “The ibex that climbs for salt”.
What a great story of how animals can adapt to changes in their environment and take advantage of unexpected opportunities.
I love it.
Lo stambecco che sale per il sale = Chamoises who climb up because of salt.
How clever and skillful they are! Just great animals!
Kaarina P.
I’m almost as amazed by the dam built of stone (instead of poured concrete).
salire = to climb, step up, mount
salgo, sali, sale
saliamo, salite, salgono
grazie per la racconta!
Uffa, I’m glad I can just go to il supermercato per il sale!
PS, is it acceptable to use “uffa” as an exclamation?
The mountain goats who climb for the salt.
……..amazing! -I don’t know the English expression, may be something like: “The salt of the earth made ‘lo stambecco’ – the stone-buck.” -by its evolution.
At the same time ‘unconvential wisdom’ for mankind that the human being have to do its utmost.
Serena, I put forward a question, if you don’t mind, about l’e’ paret’i’ roccios’e’ in the plural.
Keep it other examples this way to be watched?
Jeannet
Ciao Yvonne, we usually use ‘uffa!’ to express annoyance or boredom, e.g. ‘uffa, che noia!’
It’s hard to think what you could use in your sentence. Perhaps ‘caspita!’, which means something like ‘wow!’, e.g.
‘caspita, sono contenta che posso comprare il sale al supermercato!’
..or of course, the classic ‘mamma mia’, e.g. ‘mamma mia, sono contenta ecc.’
Saluti da Serena
ciao
PLS correct the title:
Lo stambecco che sale per il sale
instead:
Lo stanbecco che sale per il sale
grazie per blog ;D
Salve Serena,
Sono una studentessa anziana e seguiro il tuo blog. Me lo piacere molto. Ho una richiesta per favore. Spesso voglio usare un’espressione come
C’e` qualcosa similiare in Italiano?
Salve Philippa,
Hai scritto “Spesso voglio usare un’espressione come …..?
C’e` qualcosa similiare in Italiano?”
Mi sa che manca qualcosa, un espressione come che cosa?
A presto, Serena
Grazie Kaveh per avermi indicato lo sbaglio. Lo correggo subito.
Serena
oh dear!
i cant believe it!