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Ungulate Monitoring in German National Parks

Motivation

 

National parks aim at protecting natural biodiversity along with their underlying ecological structure and environmental processes. For this reason, there generally is no management intervention in the national park’s core areas. However, for some animals with large home ranges, protected areas in Central Europe are often far too small to encompass the essential natural processes or their species equipment is not complete. Thus, management interventions in wildlife populations may be necessary in order to ensure the national park’s protective purpose and to prevent transmission of diseases as well as disproportionate damage to vegetation in the surrounding cultural landscape. The regulation of ungulates therefore plays an important role in all German national parks. Except for ibex (Capra ibex) in the national park Berchtesgaden and row deer (Capreolus capreolus) in the national parks Hainich, Unteres Odertal and Bayerischer Wald, all ungulate species are currently managed in the German national parks, leading to a hunting bag of each several hundred individuals per species and year. For this reason, the single protected area’s management processes have recently been thoroughly analyzed, resulting in the key finding that ungulate monitoring as a basis of hunting quotas needs improvement, especially when considering the rapid methodological development in recent years. Another finding showed that there seems to be no coordination between the national parks in terms of indicators and methods for monitoring ungulate populations and their effects on vegetation.

 

Project aims

 

The aim of this project is to develop a permanent monitoring design of wild ungulate populations and their effects on vegetation in the German national parks, also considering the single national parks requirements and demands. In addition, the implementation of a standardized database also aims at allowing to derive causalities between single population parameters and ungulate effects on vegetation across different national parks

Study design

The project is divided into seven work packages:

I: Compilation of specific goals and the current state of the single German national park’s ungulate monitoring by means of a questionnaire

II: Definition of indicators and selection of appropriate methods for monitoring ungulate populations by means of literature research

III: Definition of indicators and selection of appropriate methods for monitoring ungulates’ effects on vegetation by means of literature research

IV: Test run for the population monitoring in selected national parks (Bayerischer Wald, Schwarzwald, Hainich, Kellerwald-Edersee, Müritz and Hunsrück-Hochwald)

V: Test run for the monitoring of ungulates‘ effects on vegetation in selected national parks (Bayerischer Wald, Schwarzwald, Hainich, Kellerwald-Edersee, Müritz and Hunsrück-Hochwald)

VI: Implementation of a database for wildlife monitoring in the German national parks

VII: Evaluation of the results gained by the test runs and evaluation of the procedures

In a first step, a survey is conducted on the specific objectives and methods of the single national park’s ungulate monitoring by means of a questionnaire. Based on these results, appropriate indicators for monitoring of ungulate populations and their effects on vegetation (in particular browsing) are defined and an analysis of existing monitoring methods is carried out. Subsequently, a test run for the population monitoring and the monitoring of ungulates‘ effects on vegetation will be carried out in selected national parks. So far, six national parks have agreed to carry out the necessary field work. Finally, the data is analyzed and the procedures are evaluated together with the national park administrations, adjusting the procedures if necessary. As a result of the project, the selected methods are documented with the help of detailed protocols and data structures, allowing to adopt them in the protected areas’ long-term monitoring. The standardization of this approach is intended to strengthen cross-border cooperation and thus also to improve the management in the protection areas.

 

Projektleitung
Prof. Dr. Ilse Storch
Bearbeitung
MSc Christian Fiderer
Förderung Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN)
Duration 11.2018- 12.2021
Partners
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