Golden eagle21 | 100 The emperor of the skies
from the series 100 photos - 100 stories
Our trainee Melissa Stemmer completed an internship at Berchtesgaden National Park in winter 2018 as part of the "Eagle Project". You can find out exciting details about the king of the skies and Germany's only Alpine national park in this article in the "100 photos 100 stories" series.
Eagle project in Berchtesgaden National Park
Berchtesgaden National Park is the only Alpine national park in Germany and has set itself many tasks. The focus is always on protecting nature. In doing so, man takes a back seat and the natural processes in nature over as large an area as possible take center stage. Nature conservation is therefore a central building block for sustainable development.
The population dynamics of the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) are being documented in the Chiemgau, Berchtesgaden and immediately adjacent Salzburg Alps as part of a long-term monitoring project by the Berchtesgaden National Park Authority. A total of 15 pairs of territories are monitored over an area of approx. 1,500 km2. Two other territories are currently unoccupied. In the national park itself, there are currently 5 golden eagle territories over an area of 210 km2. The aim of the project is to preserve a vital golden eagle sub-population and to implement specific measures to protect this rare bird of prey in Bavaria.
Reference areas Golden eagleAbout the time in the national park
"I'd just turned 18 and finished my A-levels... what do you do then? Travel? To Australia maybe? Well, I've never flown... better not. Besides, you meet more Germans there than Australians. I'd rather do something else: I've always wanted to be a vet since I was five years old. I love animals and nature. At some point, I didn't want to do it anymore because I didn't like the work there as much as I thought I would. But I still wanted to pursue a green profession. So I applied for the "Eagle Project" internship at Berchtesgaden National Park. I really wanted to be in the mountains. I already have flatland here in D?sseldorf. I started straight away in January 2018. I packed 3 suitcases and went to Ramsau near Berchtesgaden for three months. I lived there in a shared flat with 18 other interns: Environmental Education, Voluntary Ecological Year or other Adler interns. The view from my room was directly onto the famous church! Beautiful! Every day we observed the golden eagles in the different areas. Winter is the "mating season" and one of the best times to see the eagles fly. We climbed up the mountains in freezing temperatures and stayed there until we saw the eagles.
In the mornings, we would drive over to Sankt Bartholom? and watch the eagles from there if there were no tourists there yet. Sometimes, however, the view was clouded by so much snow that we had no chance of seeing anything. Sometimes it was also too dangerous to walk around outside in two meters of snow. Both summer and winter are beautiful in Berchtesgaden and offer many opportunities to get active! For me, there is no better place to relax.
This time has taught me a lot about the mountains, the national park and the animals that live there. We have to treat our environment with care and responsibility. It is our home.
Hintersee
