Ermine where-where-where?

For its daily life, the ermine needs a diverse landscape with wood, stone and vegetation as a hunting ground and hiding place. With the change in the cultural landscape, it has become in dire straits – photo comparisons from Graubünden and Glarus illustrate this.

Until the century before last, the cultivated land was richly structured. Hedges and stone walls separated small plots from each other. From the second half of the 19th century, thanks to technical advances, large-scale agriculture was possible. In many places, fruit trees and hedges were felled, dry stone walls were removed and terraces were levelled. The photo comparisons show how the appearance of our cultural landscape in Graubünden and Glarus has slowly but fundamentally changed.

Pictures: Münstertal, 1972 (left) and 2002 (right), © Prof. Dr. Klaus C. Ewald