When it comes to the re-spreading of the strictly protected lynx in Bavaria, the hunters have always had a clear position. As long as the small population in the Bavarian Forest expands beyond the region’s borders on its own and without any action from conservationists, that’s fine. So far, the hunters have categorically rejected active measures, i.e. releases in regions where no lynx live. The reason: lynx mainly eat deer, the main prey of the hunters.
Many hunters therefore did not want to tolerate lynx in their territories. But now they and the Bavarian Hunting Association (BJV) are changing course. Together with five nature conservation organizations, the BJV has written to the state government asking the state government to encourage active settlements. Association Vice Eberhard von Gemmingen-Hornberg has the letter for the BJV Süddeutsche Zeitung available, signed.
From Gemmingen-Hornberg’s point of view, lynxes have always been part of the native wildlife in Bavaria. That is why the BJV deputy, who lives in Friedenfels in the northern Upper Palatinate and manages extensive forests in the Steinwald, has been campaigning for the re-spreading of the lynx for many years. He was involved in the only reintroductions in Bavaria in recent years. They just took place in the Steinwald and in the Fichtelgebirge.
But it would be too easy to attribute the new course of the BJV to Gemmingen-Hornberg’s lynx weakness. “We are a recognized nature conservation association,” he says. “That’s why we’re obliged to stand up for the lynx.” As stipulated by the nature conservation law of the EU and Germany. And just as it is anchored in the Bavarian Luchs management plan from 2008. “The goal is a vital lynx population that chooses its habitat itself. It colonizes all suitable habitats in Bavaria,” are his two top guiding principles.
At the same time, this management plan has so far made any active promotion of lynxes in Bavaria impossible. The reason: A few passages according to the top guiding principles are categorically excluded from reintroduction. “In Bavaria neither a release nor a settlement of lynx (…) is planned”, is the decisive sentence.
Experts still remember well how the then President of the Hunters, Jürgen Vocke, personally punched him into the management plan in the final negotiations – with the threat that the BJV would otherwise not sign the paper. It was said at the time that the vast majority of BJV members would not take part in active lynx projects.
However, the small population in Bavaria cannot progress on its own. It last included about 70 adults and 27 young animals. A main reason for their stagnation is that the extremely shy big cats have been illegally pursued with guns, poison and snares until recently, as soon as they leave their core area in the Bavarian Forest National Park.
Eberhard von Gemmingen-Hornberg is Vice-President of the Bavarian Hunting Association and advocates the increased settlement of lynx.
(Photo: private)
“The management plan is getting on in years,” says Gemmingen-Hornberg, who is responsible for nature conservation in the BJV presidium. “It needs to be revised.” It should not just be about settlement projects. But also about illegal killings and much better public relations. The signatories to the letter to the Free State – apart from the BJV, the Bund Naturschutz (BN), the Landesbund für Vogelschutz (LBV), the WWF and two other small organizations – also want to negotiate that at least slightly fewer deer are shot in lynx territories – so that the big cats and hunters alike can catch prey. The latter is a hot potato.
Experts say that there are currently so many deer in the Bavarian forests that the young deciduous trees in particular have little chance of growing properly. Because the shoots of young deciduous trees are a treat for deer, the animals eat them up again and again. Many foresters are therefore calling for more deer to be shot. They reject a reduction in the launch.
The Bund Naturschutz is happy about the change of course of the hunters. “It’s very positive that the BJV is now opening up to modern lynx management and supporting resettlement projects,” says the organization’s biologist and top species conservationist, Kai Frobel. “The past few years have shown that we will never achieve a vital lynx population without active support measures.”
The BN already called for a reintroduction project in northern Bavaria in the summer of 2020 – more precisely in the Upper Palatinate Forest in the Fichtelgebirge and in the Franconian Forest. According to the BN, 20 lynx should be released in the low mountain range within ten years. At the same time, further projects in the Spessart and the Bavarian Alps should be developed. At the time, the hunters’ association could not be reached for comment on the project.