The animals of the region and a not always popular homecomer

 

With its many forests, the Black Forest provides a habitat for a wide variety of animal species. Probably the most common are roes, wild boars and foxes.

 

Roes are very numerous in the Black Forest. They grow to a maximum length of 1.30 meters and a height of 75 centimeters and, as can be easily determined to be related to deer, but smaller than them. Thus, the roebuck also has a kind of antlers, which is shed in the fall and grows back over the winter. It gets new forked ends every year, so that a roebuck has up to six tips on its horns, three on each side.

 

Roes have reddish-brown fur in summer and more grayish-brown in winter. Young fawns are born in early June. They are hidden in the grass and left there in case of danger. So it can happen that you find such a fawn in the forest, because its mother has fled from you. In this case you must not touch the fawn, otherwise the mother will not accept it. Roes live mostly in small groups and are mainly nocturnal, as they are too often disturbed in the forest during the day.

 

Foxes are distantly related to dogs and have reddish-brown fur, which is much lighter on the belly, and a bushy tail. They eat mice and birds' eggs, occasionally hares and fawns, besides rarely fruits or mushrooms. They inhabit underground burrows, which have several entrances, so that the fox can escape unnoticed in case of danger.

 

As almost everywhere in Germany, there are wild boars in the Black Forest. There is a reason for this. These animals rarely shy away from a natural boundary in their search for new territories. If necessary, they will even swim through wide bodies of water. Even a highway is hardly an obstacle. Wild boars live in groups, called rods, of related females, who are joined by their young, called freshets. Male wild boars may approach the rods only during mating season.

 

Wild boars can see poorly, but hear and smell well. With their noses they detect worms, insects and small animals, even under the surface of the ground. They often then rummage up the ground to get at their food. This causes displeasure among farmers when the wild boars dig up the fields, but it is very beneficial for the forest, because not only is the soil loosened, but root pests such as the white grub are also eaten. Wild boars love to bathe and then wallow in the mud. This helps them get rid of pesky insects.

 

The lynx, which has spread from Switzerland to the Black Forest, and the beaver have immigrated again. The large, very busy rodent was first settled on the upper Danube, from where it has moved upstream into the Black Forest valleys.

 

Apart from its considerable overall length of up to one meter and a weight of up to thirty kilograms, the beaver impresses above all with its building activities. In a body of water it builds a beaver's lodge out of brushwood and mud, i.e. a burrow in which it gives birth to its young and hides them. In order to protect the beaver's lodge, its entrance is always under water. However, since a body of water changes its water level depending on the season and the weather, the beaver itself intervenes in the course. To do this, it builds dams to dam up the water and regulate the water level. If the water level rises too high, the beaver opens the dam and releases water. This keeps its lodge inaccessible to other predators.

 

The beaver is also a very good swimmer. Unfortunately, in some places it also causes trouble with its building activities, for example when it puts meadows under water because it has built a dam. It also needs trees, which it cuts down with its nail teeth. Most people in the Black Forest, however, are happy about the busy homecomer.

 

Nowadays, the Black Forest is about 75% forested. That sounds like quite a lot, but is it true? In fact, there is a lot of forest area, but if you take a closer look at it, you will notice that it is very closely interrupted, mostly by roads. Thus, it can be said that there is only a limited amount of contiguous, large-scale forest in the Black Forest, a circumstance that limits and endangers native wildlife.