Chamois usually live up in the mountains, where the forest ends and the pastures and rocks begin. Sometimes they are also drawn to the foothills of the Alps. On the Kürnach, for example, a forest ridge a good thousand meters high west of Kempten (Oberallgäu district). 15 chamois were supposed to be shot there this year. The reason: The forest owners and foresters fear for the forest. Because the animals eat the young trees. If there are too many chamois, the forest can no longer grow back properly. The association “Wildes Bayern” with its chairman Christine Miller, who sees herself as the protector of the chamois, did not want to accept the killings. She spoke of an “extermination plan” and filed a lawsuit with the Augsburg Administrative Court. The Oberallgäu district office has now decreed that chamois hunting on the Kürnach will be suspended until the Augsburg judges have decided.
The Kürnach is one of the places in Bavaria where the quarrel about the chamois is particularly intense. “Wildes Bayern” and the Bavarian Hunting Association (BJV) accuse the state foresters in particular of hunting the animals far too sharply. That is why the populations in this country are not only far too low, they are also unstable and in some regions even threatened with extinction. “Wildes Bayern” boss Miller therefore welcomes the decision of the district office. “We are pleased that this year the greatest danger for the chamois has been averted,” she says. “For many chamois connoisseurs, nature lovers and hunters familiar with the area,” the planned killings would have been “the fatal blow for the small gam population”. The President of the Hunting Association and CSU MP Ernst Weidenbusch says that it is assumed that the district office came to the conclusion a week ago during a large hunt in the state forest on the Kürnach that “there are no chamois there”.
There are more chamois every year, says an insider
In their assessment that the chamois on the Kürnach are acutely threatened, Miller and the Jagdverband refer to a monitoring project led by the BJV. According to a BJV spokeswoman, 23 animals were found there this spring. Four of these have now been shot and another has been found dead as fallen game. The population should therefore still be 18 animals. Many forest owners and hunters from the region consider this to be far too low. During the big hunt a week ago – during which the chamois was already spared – according to insiders, after a careful count, 24 chamois were sighted. This hunt took place in a part of the Kürnach where the animals are rather rare. According to these estimates, the chamois population on the forest ridge amounts to 60 to 100 animals. “Where a hundred is more likely than sixty,” says the insider. “Plus there are more every year.”
The dispute has been dealt with in such a way that Jan Oetting from the state forest enterprise in Sonthofen and the Oberallgäu district office are very cautious. Actually, conservationists, hunters and foresters work well together in the region, especially when it comes to dealing with the chamois, says Oetting. He therefore had the impression that the dispute was “being fueled from outside”. A spokesman for the district office explains that transparency and fundamental clarification have been sought for years. At the same time, he emphasizes that the data available to his authority indicate a “significantly higher population” than the 18 animals named by “Wildes Bayern” and BJV.