Deterring wild animals

Chickens, rabbits, etc. should be locked in a closed coop at night.

Compost heaps are always an attraction and meeting place for wildlife and should be covered if necessary. Avoid leaving fallen fruit lying around; berry bushes should be covered with netting. Household waste, green waste, etc., belong in securely closed containers or bins. Garbage bags should not be left on the street for days, but only on the day of collection. Pet cat food bowls are also attractive to wildlife.

Should an unwanted guest take up residence in your garden, one option is relocation using live traps designed for all sizes. However, traps are not selective. Often, animals other than the ones causing the damage are caught (cats, polecats, martens, etc.). This problem can be minimized by placing the traps directly in front of, or very close to, the hiding places of the wild animals you wish to trap.

When foxes, badgers, and other animals are captured and released elsewhere, they experience fear and stress during the capture process. If they then find themselves in a completely unfamiliar environment, this causes them further stress: they are disoriented in the unfamiliar territory and must defend themselves against established residents.

Sooner or later, the young animals will disperse and seek a new territory, and the adult animals will move on. Trapping is preferable to hunting by hobbyists because it gives the wild animals a real chance. Hobby hunters usually arrive with a rifle and intend to kill! Shooting animals in a residential area can be very dangerous. People (especially children!) or pets can be endangered. We repeatedly hear in the media about trigger-happy hunters mistaking a fox for a cat or a llama for a deer. Quite a few hobby hunters have psychological problems and cannot properly assess the situation.

The issue of diseases is blown way out of proportion by recreational hunters. More people are struck by lightning or injured in hunting accidents than are infected with diseases from wild animals. In fact, it's usually the hunters themselves who contract zoonotic diseases!

Captured animals are often replaced by others of their species that either don't yet have their own territory or are expanding theirs. The newcomers use the scent markings of their predecessor, which show them exactly where hiding places or feeding areas are. Seal off potential hiding places, for example, in the garden shed (but first check that no animals are inside). Immediately fill in any digging activity (holes) that has begun!

Another solution is deterrence. Deterrence refers to the permanent driving away (scareting) or keeping away of wild animals – either involuntarily or as a deliberate, non-lethal method to encourage wild animals to change their behavior. Exploiting innate behaviors to influence the targeted wild animals in an environmentally neutral way by simulating natural predators is playing an increasingly important role in this.

• Electric fences can keep wild animals out
• Repellents are used to scare away wild animals.
• Radios and motion detectors with sound/light effects are used to scare away wild animals.
• Crow clapping is used to scare away ravens and crows.
• Spikes are being installed on buildings that are particularly protected as historical monuments, in order to deter pigeons.
• Air-powered firecrackers are used in vineyards.
• Ultrasound is used to repel martens or voles in the ground.
• Fragrances (toilet blocks, synthetic products, sweat, etc.) are used to repel wild animals.
• A dog in the garden scares away wild animals
• Dog and human hair repels wild animals.
• Aluminum strips, which create noise through wind and light reflections, drive away wild animals and birds.
• Scarecrows are meant to keep birds like crows away.
• A water shower with the garden hose drives away wild animals.
• Thriller whistles repel wild animals

To protect free-roaming rabbits, ducks, and other small animals in the garden from foxes, martens, or other predators, they should be kept in a safe, spacious enclosure at night. The enclosure should be secured with an electric fence, both day and night. Nowadays, close-meshed, flexible small animal fences in various heights (50–170 cm) are available commercially, specifically designed for use near the house, providing protection for free-roaming small animals.

When foxes are removed from an area, the remaining foxes respond by producing more offspring, and the cleared area is quickly repopulated by new foxes. It is also known that fox populations cannot be permanently reduced even through intensive hunting.

Many people enjoy the presence of wild animals and are willing to share their habitat with them. Wild animals enrich the fauna and quality of life, even in our residential areas, just as blackbirds, frogs, and hedgehogs have long done. Enjoy the opportunity to share your habitat with a wild animal and perhaps even observe it. You will be fascinated! With a little tolerance and appropriate behavior, a peaceful coexistence between wild animals and humans should certainly be possible.

IG Wild beim Wild

Fragrances:

Due to its pungent odor, it is often not possible to use it in populated areas.

Hukinol : Effectively repels all types of wildlife from areas where wild animals are unwanted, thanks to its concentrated human sweat scent. Hukinol has a very persistent and long-lasting odor, so just one bottle per hectare is sufficient for effective protection. Like conventional deterrents, Hukinol is applied to rags and hung on posts approximately 10–20 meters apart. Due to the strong odor, its use in populated areas is not recommended. Hukinol is suitable for preventing damage caused by wild animals in forests and fields, rescuing fawns in meadows, and protecting poultry from predators.

Antibissan : Keeps away crows, deer, wild boar, birds of prey, foxes, martens, voles, moles, snails, and ants; an ideal wildlife barrier. The scent and active ingredients are perceived by the animal, creating a subconscious image of the enemy (human) and thus driving the animal away. Long-lasting effect; the active ingredients are harmless to humans, animals, and the environment.

Limses : For reducing road traffic accidents involving ungulates and for deterring wildlife on smaller cultivated areas. Limses works exclusively through scent, creating increased alertness and irritation in wildlife. Limes dispensers are hung on both sides of roads or around cultivated areas, attached to trees, bushes, or posts. The dispensers should be spaced 10–20 meters apart.

Porocol : A synthetic scent agent contained in a weatherproof plastic vaporizer column. Porocol is used along roads with high wildlife traffic, to protect against browsing damage in wooded areas with young plants, or in fields, such as cornfields, to prevent wild boar from entering. Porocol is also excellent for saving fawns killed by mowing machines. For fawn rescue, the vaporizer columns should be placed 1–2 days before mowing the meadow.

Armacol : In several months of use in European high-game habitats, Armacol has proven exceptionally effective in managing and deterring wildlife. Armacol reliably repels all game species from areas where wildlife is unwanted, thanks to its concentrated human sweat scent. Armacol has a very persistent and long-lasting odor, so just one bottle per hectare is sufficient for effective results. Armacol is applied like conventional deterrents, dripped onto rags, and hung on posts approximately 10–20 meters apart. Due to the strong odor, its use in populated areas is not recommended! Armacol is suitable for managing wildlife in forests and fields (forced migration routes), rescuing fawns in meadows, and protecting poultry from predators.

Fowikal : Available at Landi in Switzerland for badger, deer, roe deer, fox, etc.

Zoonoses in foxes:

Independent studies by the Friedrich Loeffler Institute for Animal Viral Diseases and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research have shown that hunting cannot influence sylvatic rabies. However, as experience from the 1970s demonstrated, even the unprecedented eradication campaign, in which all accessible fox dens nationwide were treated with poison gas and foxes were relentlessly hunted with traps and shotguns, failed to achieve this. Only the widespread distribution of vaccine baits led to the eradication of rabies.

Hunting foxes also has no effect on the prevalence of the fox tapeworm. Recent studies from the University of Hohenheim, the Technical University of Munich, and the University of Zurich suggest that hunting foxes may even be counterproductive with regard to the occurrence of the fox tapeworm, as hunting affects the age structure of the populations.