The popular local mountain of Munich residents, Heimgarten, is the scene of a quiet dying - unnoticed by most visitors and hikers.
The Wild Bavaria Association now wants to mobilize the population.
Kochel am See / Großweil -
This is the impression made by the Wildes Bayern association.
Local nature and animal rights activists therefore demand that the local extermination of a protected wild species between Heimgarten and Herzogstand be stopped.
This can be found in a press release for which Christine Miller is responsible as chairwoman of the Wildlife Conservation Association.
For Ignaz Ott, the home garden is something like his personal garden.
He knows every footbridge and trail, in summer and winter.
The Großweiler spent his entire life here and carefully observed nature.
“The chamois is disappearing in the Heimgarten,” he has been saying for years and tries to be heard.
Can it really be?
A type of character from the Bavarian mountains is dying out - in the middle of us?
The impression that Ignaz Ott gained is obviously not that absurd.
Wildlife biologist and conservationist Dr.
Christine Miller from the Wildes Bayern association took a look at the situation on site.
“Chamois is a 'fragile' species.
Packs on a mountain stick can easily be hunted so heavily and weakened by alarm.
It has long been known that they are disappearing, and that is why the chamois is also protected under EU law, ”explains Miller.
“We have seen the overexploitation of this wild species in Bavaria with great concern for years.
In the meantime, the chamois has even slipped onto the “warning list on Germany's Red List”.
An alarm signal for Miller and to see particularly drastic at Heimgarten.
Instead of the small pack of goats and fawns, Ott has seen fewer and fewer individual chamois for years.
Reasons for the dramatic decline
The experts at the Red List Center at the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation clearly state the reasons for the dramatic decline in the species: “Due to the abolition of closed seasons in certain areas and increased hunting based on silvicultural goals, but often without consideration of age and gender structure takes place, the stocks in Bavaria are declining in many places. ”Especially at Heimgarten, the chamois“ got into a bone mill ”.
In the south from the Ohlstädter Alm, according to Miller, a “death zone” was only extended last year.
The Bad Tölz forestry company shoots chamois all year round.
In the west, so-called “self-cultivation” borders under forest management, which, according to Miller, also intervene in the stands.
"We keep getting calls from citizens who are appalled when they talk about the big driven hunts with packs of dogs that take place there," said the wildlife biologist.
"We are taking legal action against this destruction of nature." Other associations, such as the German Animal Welfare Association in Bavaria and the local hunting clubs, have lodged complaints with the EU, "Miller explains the fight for the chamois.
Courageous chamois friends have meanwhile proclaimed a “Mourning Path to the Heimgarten in memory of our chamois”.
The AkTIERvisten Oberland “recently drew attention to the dramatic situation with an information stand in Kochel.
"We need protection and quiet zones for the chamois," affirms Sylia Arlette Greif from AktTIERvisten.
Miller and the other Gams protectors therefore appeal to the many visitors and mountain friends in the region: “Our mountains should not just become a dead backdrop for forestry.
We must again have respect for the fact that our mountains and forests are also habitats for sensitive animals.
Please, dear hikers, mountaineers and day-trippers, take a closer look and help us to preserve the chamois in your popular leisure area and Munich's local mountain, ”said Miller.
The Wildes Bayern association is now mobilizing the population: the wildlife protectors are collecting signatures in a petition that will run until the end of November.
"The chamois must become a matter for the boss in Bavaria and must not be ground up in the mills of a forest administration that revolves around its own projects," says the call.
(tk)
More information about the campaign at www.wildes-bayern.de/kampagne/rettet-die-gams
