Recreation and wildlife

Mountains, wildlife and people: The Bavarian Alps, with their abundance of small pockets of land offering varying living conditions, are home to a wide variety of different ecological communities. The landscape is characterised by mountain forests, rocky areas, areas of dwarf mountain pine, and alpine pastures. Whether we are talking about red deer, chamois or grouse - for many species, this mountain world is a valuable habitat. And some of these species are rare. But people also have a long-standing and justified interest in the use of this complex landscape. As well as forestry, hunting, protection forest management and pasture farming, recreational tourism is becoming increasingly important.

In public debate in recent years, the more intensive recreational use in particular has been perceived and addressed as being increasingly detrimental to wildlife. In order to strike a balance between the interests of recreational visitors on the one hand, and a responsible approach to dealing with the wild animals living in the Alpine region on the other, it is first necessary to understand the interactions between habitat, wild animals and humans. The project “Methods for the development, implementation and evaluation of wildlife-ecological zoning concepts” of the Bavarian State Institute of Forestry (LWF), which is being carried out in two project areas representative of the Bavarian Alpine region - located in the Karwendel Mountains and in the Chiemgau Alps - provides scientific findings on this topic. Among other measures in the course of the project, the scientists tagged chamois with GPS collars (Figure 2). Through satellite telemetry, these provide information on the animals' reaction to human influences. In addition, surveys carried out among recreational visitors to the region provide information on people's perceptions of and attitudes towards wildlife in the project areas. Both aspects - the reaction of wild animals and the behaviour and views of people - are to be incorporated in concepts aimed at sensitising recreational visitors to the requirements of wild animals and the mountain forest.

Using a ten-point scale, respondents were asked to rate the extent to which their presence in the area affected wildlife (1 = no adverse effect to 10 = severe adverse effect). On average, respondents rated their own adverse effect on wildlife higher in the Chiemgau area (4.5) than in the Karwendel area (3.6), with day tourists rating it higher (4.4) than residents and holidaymakers (3.8) (Figure 4). Cyclists rated their impact on wildlife at an average of 3.4, while hikers and walkers (winter and summer) and winter sports enthusiasts (tobogganists, ski tour enthusiasts, skiers, snow-shoe hikers) rated theirs at 4.0.

Although the targeted observation of animals was not a key motivation for recreational visitors to travel to one of the project areas, many respondents rated an animal sighting positively. However, most recreational visitors are unaware of the influence they may have on the timing and location of wildlife activity. All groups of recreational users rated their impact on wildlife as low to moderate. They do not usually even consciously perceive encounters with wildlife, whether visually or acoustically: recreational visitors often do not notice that they are influencing or even having an adverse effect on the behaviour of wild animals.

Recreational visitors today use wildlife habitats in a more varied and intensive way than in the past. Activities off the beaten track, such as geo-caching, are on the increase. This shared use of the area often leads to conflicts of interest. Scientific findings on the influence of recreational use on the spatial use, behaviour and living conditions of wild animals are available from individual studies carried out outside Bavaria. They show, for example, that wild animals react to human influences by shifting their activities to twilight and night-time hours. It has also been shown that they avoid areas and paths that are heavily frequented by humans.

In view of these aspects and the increase in recreational tourism, we must strike a good balance between the perception of the mountain forest as a “space for freedom” and active visitor sensitisation and, if necessary, visitor control. The Chiemgau project area is mainly frequented by active sports enthusiasts, while the Karwendel region is particularly popular with holidaymakers seeking peace and relaxation for a few days. What all categories of recreation seekers have in common is that they use the information boards in the respective areas as sources of information. These boards are therefore a suitable instrument for sensitising visitors and creating acceptance and a sense of responsibility towards wildlife through knowledge transfer.

Based on these findings, knowledge is to be imparted to visitors in the further course of the project, and in the course of this process, an appeal is to be made to the individual's sense of responsibility. With regard to visitor education, the project is thus to focus on the development of effective publicity and materials for knowledge transfer. In addition, the behavioural experiments carried out on chamois using satellite telemetry serve to investigate the reaction of wild animals to human influences in more detail (Figure 2). Both aspects - the behaviour of people and wildlife - will help us to develop and derive measures to increase awareness and sensitivity towards wildlife among recreational users in the further course of the project.