Hitler feeding some roe deer, 1936.
Good thing these deer met the animal-loving Hitler and not Goering, who probably would have shot them!
I am aware that Western roe deer are found throughout Europe, but I most strongly associate them with Germany for some reason.
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They are all over Europe…plenty in Austria as well. Not good for forests…have to be decimated…
The word is “culled”, NOT “decimated”.
Decimated is what happened to the plains Indians and the bison in North America in the 1870’s and 1880’s.
Decimated as in reduced.
Call it what you will, the population size has to be controlled.
Den Populationsbestand reduzieren.
“Culling” is what the English language calls it, though you do raise an interesting question. At what point do we decide there are too many of any native animal in it’s natural range? When they become an inconvenience to humans? Maybe there are too many people.
One number I heard for Germany was that there are two million roe deer in Germany and that hunters take one million every year. The population was said to be stable.
That’s a good question. Game managers operate on several different concepts of “carrying capacity.” There is the ecological carrying capacity, which is how many animals of a given species an ecosystem can handle before it becomes too stressed. There is also a cultural carrying capacity, which is about how many of a given species humans can tolerate without lots of conflicts.
In my part of the US, black bears are mostly managed using cultural carrying capacity metrics, meaning that bear hunting limits are based upon controlling bear numbers so that they don’t become a widespread nuisance.
Here it is also a question of how much damage roe deer do to forests which are mostly privately owned. But even in public forests as in the Vienna woods, wildlife, including boar and fox are managed.
I am always sceptical with claims of “too many” of a given species within it’s natural range, such as “too many” kangaroos because they compete with sheep for grazing, or “too many” seals in northeastern North America because they compete with fishermen for cod. The cod population was depleted by human overfishing and the seals were also slaughtered for skins and blubber. 500 years ago there were many times more seals and what was thought to be an inexhaustible number of cod.
The foxes in Austria were likely partly controlled by wolves in the past. As far as the roe deer and wild boars are concerned, for a long time I have had this fantasy of setting up a reserve for Siberian tigers in Europe to let them prey on the surplus boar and deer. Not only would it control the deer and boar population but help protect the tiger as a species. Somehow I don’t think the local people would go for it.
I have no idea of the total number of roe deer but culling at least here in Austria is strictly regulated.
I could find out from some of my landowner friends who all have hunting licenses( also strictly regulated!) but I think it is on a local level. I presume Germany is similar to Austria.
sounds like you need wolves and lynx in Europe
We have both, but not where the most roe deer are.
It’s always weird to see stuff like this, it almost makes you think Hitler was a nice guy.