No room for wild animals

Let's start this article with a few figures. In 2006, 302 mountain gorillas were counted in Uganda, in 2011 there were over 400 and the number continues to rise. Uganda is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a nominal gross national product of USD 638 per capita per year.

In 2011, the brown bear dies out again in Austria. In 2017, there are around 20 lynxes in Austria, with room for up to 250 in western Austria alone. There are also only a few wild cats. In the Zistersdorf region of Lower Austria, more than 30 birds of prey have been killed illegally in recent years.
All of these animals are protected under EU law. With a nominal gross national product of USD 44,498 per capita per year, Austria is one of the richest countries in the world.

What is going wrong here? Although Austria is a western and industrialized country and has high nature conservation standards, there is no place for wild animals.

1. Wild animals are always in competition with agriculture, forestry and fishing, which means that businesses suffer financial losses and feel their existence is under threat. As a result, federal states often allow targeted killing. In Lower Austria, for example , 40 otters may be "removed" by summer 2018, the official reason given being the protection of the endangered species brown trout and Waldviertel carp. Beavers may also be killed in Lower Austria if they endanger the general public, for example by destroying flood dams.
   The usefulness of removing individual beavers is highly questionable, as studies show that the remaining animals often expand their territory into the vacated areas.
2. Another aspect is poaching. In the past, poaching was mostly done to save the family from starvation, but nowadays there are more and more trophy hunters. The hunting community is now resigned to the fact that public prosecutors often dismiss cases on the grounds of insignificance or that only a third of cases are solved.
3. Unfortunately, it's not just poaching. Hunters in office also kill protected species. One case that made the headlines was the discovery of a lynx in a taxidermist's freezer by the Provincial Criminal Police Office after the Kalkalpen National Park was missing all the males. The hunter was sentenced to a fine of 11,160 euros and must reimburse the protected area 12,101 euros.

This was a great success for Austrian nature conservation. But if you look at other countries, you realize that the penalties in this country are far too low to ensure real nature conservation.

For example, a hunter in Alaska had to fear 5 years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars for shooting moose to attract bears.

In view of all these conditions, the wolf will not have an easy time in Austria. Wiped out in 1882, the legendary predator has been making a comeback since 2009. Unlike beavers or lynxes, it comes all by itself, as wolves can easily cover 70 km a day. In 2016, a pack was observed again for the first time in Allentsteig, Lower Austria. And animal owners are already calling for wolf-free zones and are afraid of attacks.

Will the wolf, from which man's best friend is descended and of which there are 750,000 in Austria, stand a chance?

Not everything is black in Austria! Yes, wild animals quickly reach their limits here, but there are also ambitious people who are committed to their conservation. The project LEBEN AM LIMIT(lebenamlimit.at) uses extraordinary images and photographic material by photographers Marc Graf, Christine Sonvilla and Robert Haasmann to raise awareness of the beauty of nature and animals:

"Our incentive is to make nature heard more, to bring people back into contact with it, with its roots, and to convey that nature has value in itself."

At the same time, LEBEN AM LIMIT also gives a voice to people who are affected by wild animals, such as livestock farmers, hunters and beekeepers. Logically, every city dweller would like Austria's natural landscapes to be populated by bears, lynxes and wolves, but the farmer whose sheep are killed quickly sees things differently.

Nevertheless, if Uganda manages to protect its mountain gorillas from poachers, it would be a scandal if Austria could not manage to grant part of the land to the wild animals.

Or not?