Management plan shell game

The national park area with an area expansion of about 12.000 ha is located in the northern limestone Alps of Styria in the so-called Ennsknie in an area with centuries of intensive human use in the form of forest and hunting interventions, but also characterised by settlement, (bringing) activity and intensive alpine farming. Due to the absence of significant large predators such as bear, wolf and lynx, the shell game of red, roe deer and gams game to a small extent also occurring muffle game, sporadically black game is controlled and killed by sworn professional personnel (hunters and foresters) as part of annual firing plans. Due to the validity of the Steiermärkisches Jagdgesetz i.d.g.F. these are to be coordinated with the authority and approved by the authority based on the natural objectives of the national park. Since there are no wintering rooms in the national park as in its surroundings for red deer, it is fed to 2 feeding sites in the park area. Deer feeding is reduced in a transitional period and then completely abandoned. The requirements of the IUCN for an ultimately non-interference area of 75 % of the park area set up a zoning into an intervention-free natural zone lt. National Park Act, managed conservation zone and transitional areas with forest measures and priority hunting. The aim is to integrate these transition areas (temporary management zones) into the natural zone after completion of the forest-building stock conversions. The aim is to achieve a shell game management that aims at a minimum of intervention in wild ecological processes in the national park as well as a minimum of damage or negative developments in the parkumland. All management measures in the national park area are accompanied by an in-depth monitoring of the shell game and their interactions with the habitat.