The latest on lynxes, roe deer and red deer, 20/12/2007

Roe deer

It was with the first snowfall that our season for catching roe deer began. Within a relatively short time frame – an only 2-month-long period from 31/10/2007-20/12/2007 – we have already succeeded in trapping 19 roe deer (8 males, 11 females) in altogether seven trapping locations between Glashütte and Klingenbrunn Bahnhof. Of those, 16 animals (6 males, 10 females) were caught and fitted with a tracking device for the first time. Three animals already had collars which were now replaced with new ones. A roe buck named Jakob had first been fitted with one in December 2006, while another by the name of Heiner had gone through the same procedure in March of this year. Roe doe Helene had first been tagged in January 2006, was recaught and tagged in March 2007, and now – after having been caught yet again – is already wearing her third collar. We are particularly happy about being able to re-tag animals, as this allows us to receive data from them for a longer period of time.

After such a successful start, the current number of animals with tracking devices is now 33 (17 males, 16 females). Of these, 14 animals (10 males, 4 females) are wearing GPS/GSM collars and are sending the national park administration their position data via text message. Their whereabouts can be looked up under ‘Seeking Traces’ (Spurensuche) (note: updates will start on December 24th). 13 other animals (5 males, 8 females) are wearing ‘store-on-board’ collars which save – but do not send – data. Since we are only able to collect this data after removing the collars, we are unable to display it on our homepage. On six of the animals, the collars stopped working. Thus, they no longer send any data to the national park administration and cannot be tracked on the internet.

The number of animals that have been fitted with tracking devices since 2004 is now 52 (30 males, 22 females). 19 of the animals died. Ten were killed by lynxes (we have proof that several were killed by tagged female lynx Nora), two were killed in road accidents, and three were legally shot by hunters. Four animals were discovered so late that it was no longer possible to determine the cause of death.

We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to Helmut Penn and Lothar Ertl for their help and commitment during roe deer catching!

Red Deer

The current number of red deer with tracking devices is 12 (4 males, 8 females). Of these, seven animals (1 male, 6 females) are wearing GPS/GSM collars sending their position data to the national park administration by text message.

Their whereabouts can be tracked using 'Seeking Traces' (Spurensuche) (see above). The remaining five collars have stopped working and no longer send any data to the national park administration. The number of red deer having been fitted with tracking devices since 2002 has now reached 29 (16 males, 13 females). Of the animals that no longer have tracking devices, four were legally shot by hunters. One male deer was discovered dead, its body being used for food by a female lynx and her cubs. The exact cause of death could not be determined (see the news archive September to December 2006). The remaining animals had their collars removed.

No red deer have been caught yet this season. We hope that the newly installed trapping facility in the Riedlhäng winter enclosure, as well as the anaesthetisation of deer in the Ahornschachten winter enclosure, will bring us some success in this regard.

We would like to thank professional hunters Helmut and Michael Penn, Rüdiger Fischer, and Ingo Brauer for their help with the catching and anaesthetisation of deer!

Lynxes

With the onset of snow, first reports of lynx traces and other tips have started coming in. Again, a lynx from the outside appeared near Animal Enclosure Area I, having followed the fence and apparently interacting with the lynxes inside the enclosure. The lynx team would like to thank all its staff for their reports and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Dr. Marco Heurich receives Count Lennart Bernadotte Award for Land Stewardship

In the presence of many well-known representatives of public life from the realms of culture, science and politics – among them Prof. Dr. Dagmar Schipanski, president of the Thuringian parliament – Countess Sonja Bernadotte presented Dr. Marco Heurich of the Bavarian National Park administration with the Award for Land Stewardship. The event took place in the White Hall of Mainau castle, on the island of Mainau on Lake Constance.

The Award is one of a kind in Germany, and given out for outstanding scientific contributions to bringing about an equilibrium between technology, the economy, and nature – as was agreed on in the ‘Green Charta of the Isle of Mainau’ in 1961.

Dr. Heurich won the award for his PhD dissertation ‘Evaluation and development of methods for automated detection of forest structures with data from airborne remote sensing’, which received ‘summa cum laude’ from the Scientific Center of the TU Munich for Nutrition, Land Use and Environment.

‘The results of this work are of great practical importance – both in terms of forestry and nature conservation. Thus, laser scanner data currently best represent forests – particularly when it comes to detecting forest structures – due to its accuracy in height measurement and its ability to penetrate forests. The models and techniques developed within the framework of the dissertation represent a big step toward forest inventories supported by modern methods of remote sensing. Mr. Heurich significantly expands the state of current international knowledge in this field.’

The speech was held by Prof. Dr. Dr. Ulrich Ammer from the team for land use at the Technical University of Munich. Ammer also pointed out Mr. Heurich’s role as a multi-talented scientist who, besides his work in remote sensing, also deals in depth with such subjects as nature conservation and ecology, and who has over 60 publications in these areas.

The Count Lennart Bernadotte Award for Land Stewardship was first offered in 1989 by the Lennart Bernadotte Foundation (Isle of Mainau) on the occasion of Prof. Dr. h.c. mult. Count Lennart Bernadotte’s 80th birthday, and has been given out 17 times so far. This puts Dr. Marco Heurich among the ranks of award winners such as indigenous forest researcher Dr. Ludwig Albrecht, Dr. Leberecht Jeschke, Dr. Martin Flade, and environmental activist Prof. Dr. Felix Eckhard.