Conservationists and hunters in Bavaria argue about kills: "The deer is not a sacred cow"

Created: 2022-12-14 13:03

By: Dirk Walter

A walk in the “Forest of the Future” (from left) Hans Kornprobst, BN district chief Manfred Burger, hunter Matthias Muth and BN regional head Richard Mergner.

dw © Dirk Walter

There's a fight between hunters and conservationists - again.

The trigger is the book by Rudolf Neumeier, head of the regional association for home care and a hunter for four years.

In a book he sharply attacked foresters and conservationists.

Valley – Matthias Muth, 49, farmer and hunter, stands next to a huge spruce stump in the middle of the forest near Valley (Miesbach district) and talks about the hunt.

That he shot eight deer this year.

That he doesn't put a fence around the young trees.

That he is sometimes attacked as someone who exterminates deer.

He is pleased about the praise from Richard Mergner, head of the Bund Naturschutz in Bayern.

"This is a forest of the future that we need," says Mergner, who organized the visit to Muth.

The reason for this appointment is a book by Rudolf Neumaier, the head of the regional association for home care.

In the book and in an interview with the "Münchner Merkur" he vehemently defends the deer's right to life and fires volley after volley against the alleged "deer killing cartel" formed by foresters and conservationists.

Neumaier, a former journalist, got his hunting license four years ago.

His book is a great success in hunter circles.

Recently, this "young hunter" (Muth) was even elected district chief of the Bavarian hunters in Altötting.

It doesn't work without kills

The four men in the forest view the burgeoning discussion with concern.

They are committed to “hunting in accordance with nature” (Mergner).

You can't do that without a lot of kills.

And they want to show that here in the forest.

Pale light slanting through the trees, it's cold, first snow.

Sentences fall, crystal clear, some might consider them to be ice cold.

matter of opinion.

"The deer is not a sacred cow," says Richard Mergner.

"For me, hunting is a craft," says Matthias Muth.

Hans Kornprobst, 80, drove the group up into the forest in his Mercedes.

When he became head of the Schliersee forestry office in 1975, Kornprobst recounts, deer "ate up" the fir trees and deciduous forest.

In their distress, the forest farmers coated the delicate tree buds with a mixture of cow dung and lime because the deer don't like it.

It's not that bad anymore.

But even today, some prefer not to go out with a gun, but rather with wool or plastic clips to protect individual trees - Muth calls them "sheep's wool hunters" slightly mockingly.

With the mass of forest in the district of Miesbach, individual protection for trees is more of an emergency measure.

You can't build wild fences "from Munich to Beijing", Kornprobst scoffs - and anyway: Where do you get there to fence in forests?

25 to 30 deer released for shooting every year

But how do you protect the forest then?

The answer for Kornprobst was the consistent launch.

Matthias Muth also adheres to this.

He studied landscape ecology at the TU and has held a hunting license for 31 years.

“There is not a single fence in our district,” he says.

The cooperative area on the northern foothills of the Taubenberg has 400 hectares of forest and is divided into stalking districts.

Every hunter there has to report his kills, and a total of 25 to 30 deer and roebucks are to be “taken” from the area every year.

"That's the annual increase," says Muth.

"And we'll skim off the growth." The number is in the shooting plan that the district office has approved.

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My space

Grade 1 for the farmer's forest

Are 25 deer on 400 hectares of forest a lot or a little?

Nobody knows the number of deer in the cooperative area.

As well as?

A census of some kind is impracticable, and game also wanders from one district to the next.

In order to determine the number of deer to be shot, there is an annual forest inspection by the Miesbach Office for Food, Agriculture and Forestry, followed by a written report.

Muth shows the two-sided paper.

"The current stocking shows a high proportion of well-mixed old stands", the regeneration situation is "very favourable", the browsing "exemplarily" low, according to the report.

So grade 1.

Courage ahead, the group trudges through the forest.

Fir, spruce, beech - these are the most common tree species in the forest area.

Muth has to search until he finds bitten young fir trees.

Deer browsing is a rarity in its forest.

Not everyone shoots as consistently as he does.

Hans Kornprobst reports on kills "on paper".

What is meant is: Some dizzy with the number of kills, some killed deer only exist on paper.

Says grain sample.

Therefore, he also considers the "physical proof" to be absolutely necessary when shooting - if necessary, the hunter must show the killed animal to the officials from the district office.

Muth suspects that only a quarter of the areas in the district of Miesbach are hunted consistently.

The practice of a hunting association that has leased its territory to an industrialist who is stingy with kills is legendary and disreputable among foresters.

Sure, illustrious hunting guests should get something in front of the gun right away and not only after hours of waiting.

"Vitamin B hunting" calls it Muth.

He makes it clear: "They don't exist here."