Alpine farmers furious over marmot plague
Published: 25 Aug 09 16:01 CET
The Local.de Excerpt:
An invasion of marmots has Alpine farmers in Germany's southern Allgäu region claiming the rodents have become a fuzzy plague.
There are simply too many, Christoph Brutscher told German daily newspaper Die Welt on Tuesday.
Brutscher lives near the Zipfsalpe, right on Germanys southern border with Austria in the region of Oberallgäu of Bavaria. While his grandchildren say the whistling rodents live here with Grandpa, Brutscher wants to get rid of them.
For those of us living in the Alps, they have become a real plague, he said.
Marmots (Marmota marmotini) thrive at high altitudes and at 1,526-metre the idyllic Zipfsalpe peak fits the bill perfectly were it not for the predators. As the region's eagle population recovers and grows, the marmots are seeking refuge in nearby alpine huts.
The marmots are advancing on the huts because they are being hunted by the eagles. Many of those buildings now have an awful stench to them, said Peter Danks of the Alpine business association of Allgäu.
In neighbouring Austria, cattle farmers are allowed to hunt the rodents that come too close to their property. But in Germany the marmots are still protected.
And this is unlikely to change while the complaints about marmots remain few and far between. Gottfried Mayrock, head of the Oberallgäu district office for environmental protection, is hesitant to call the existing marmot population a plague.
There are occasional complaints from Alpine residents about the marmots but it does not yet seem to us that the population is out of hand, he told Die Welt. He recommends that the farmers scare away the rodents with strange smells, such as a diesel-soaked rag. When they notice a foreign smell in the building they continue searching for shelter.
END EXCERPT
This sounds like a job for teenagers with shotguns and 22's...
Published: 25 Aug 09 16:01 CET
The Local.de Excerpt:
An invasion of marmots has Alpine farmers in Germany's southern Allgäu region claiming the rodents have become a fuzzy plague.
There are simply too many, Christoph Brutscher told German daily newspaper Die Welt on Tuesday.
Brutscher lives near the Zipfsalpe, right on Germanys southern border with Austria in the region of Oberallgäu of Bavaria. While his grandchildren say the whistling rodents live here with Grandpa, Brutscher wants to get rid of them.
For those of us living in the Alps, they have become a real plague, he said.
Marmots (Marmota marmotini) thrive at high altitudes and at 1,526-metre the idyllic Zipfsalpe peak fits the bill perfectly were it not for the predators. As the region's eagle population recovers and grows, the marmots are seeking refuge in nearby alpine huts.
The marmots are advancing on the huts because they are being hunted by the eagles. Many of those buildings now have an awful stench to them, said Peter Danks of the Alpine business association of Allgäu.
In neighbouring Austria, cattle farmers are allowed to hunt the rodents that come too close to their property. But in Germany the marmots are still protected.
And this is unlikely to change while the complaints about marmots remain few and far between. Gottfried Mayrock, head of the Oberallgäu district office for environmental protection, is hesitant to call the existing marmot population a plague.
There are occasional complaints from Alpine residents about the marmots but it does not yet seem to us that the population is out of hand, he told Die Welt. He recommends that the farmers scare away the rodents with strange smells, such as a diesel-soaked rag. When they notice a foreign smell in the building they continue searching for shelter.
END EXCERPT
This sounds like a job for teenagers with shotguns and 22's...
