Management of Red Deer in the Bayerrischer Wald National Park
Wotschikowsky U. 1977. Management of Red Deer in the Bayerrischer Wald National Park. Parks. 2(1):5-7
The management of large herbivores is a severe problem in many national parks. Parks frequently offer suitable habitat only during a part of the year, while the areas outside of the parks needed by the animals often have been utilized so as to destroy their value as wildlife habitat, or they are prevented from using their migration routes. Large predators have often been exterminated, and with them a very important natural mechanism of population regulation. Finally, the demarcation of national parks is seldom made according to ecological considerations. Serious damage of the ecosystem is thus not uncommon, and consequently, impassioned discussions concerning the national park idea arise. In Central Europe the red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) is foremost in such discussions. In the Swiss National Park, this species causes considerable damage by browsing during summer, causing people again and again to call for reinstating hunting in this strongly protected area. When the Bayerischer Wald National Park was declared in 1970, a real red deer controversy broke out between hunters and nature conservationists. Also in the Berchtesgaden National Park, West Germany's second preserved area of this type, the red deer and the conflict between protection and hunting has dominated the scene.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Wotschikowsky, Ulrich
- Units
- HIST
- Keywords
- (Cervus elaphus L.), Browsing, Conflict, Conservation, ehistory, History, Hunting, Protection, Red Deer