The approximately 200 animals – mainly different types of game, but also wild boar, pygmy goats, birds and rabbits – in the game reserve Waldshut on Mühleberg have a healthy appetite. Providing them with food on a total area of about 22 hectares is the biggest part of goalkeeper Andreas Armbrusters and employed Hubert Rossa’s work.
Cheeky birds: When game reserve employee Hubert Rossa comes with mealworms, his shoulders and arms are a popular landing place to get hold of some quickly. | Photo: Ursula Freudig
The animals are fed two to three times a day. In the summer, freshly cut grass is the staple food for almost all animals. It comes from meadows near the game reserve, which the Waldshut Game Reserve Association has leased and mows itself with the club’s own tractor.
Grass for summer food: The sika deer in the Waldshut game reserve enjoy a large portion of fresh vegetables for lunch. | Photo: Ursula Freudig
The game reserve is very happy to have a large meadow that can be grown for free for food. A former Schmitzinger farmer left them to the game reserve.
Hay is also made. Some come from our own leased meadows, some are bought from local farmers. From time to time, the road is a little longer for this, because the food-sensitive ibex needs a very nutrient-poor, lean hay for its health, which is the case at higher altitudes.
– We collect hay from a farmer in Rothaus especially for the ibex, says Werner Jockers, chairman of the sponsor association. In addition to hay, silage is the main feed in winter, a mixture of, among other things, corn, grass, potatoes and beets.
According to Jocker, the game reserve stored and fed around 22 tonnes of silage last year. In addition, the animals receive various delicacies that are left to the game reserve by shops, such as bakeries, food banks or private parties. Like bread and vegetables, apples, potatoes, chestnuts and acorns.
Visitors can also give the animals a boost of self-confidence by providing them with food. However, they should only do this with the feed from the machine. A package costs one euro.
Feed the right things: Luca from Laufenburg has just released a package of food from the machine, in addition to birds and ibex, it suits all animals and a welcome treat. | Photo: Ursula Freudig
They contain pellets that are suitable for all animals except ibex and birds and are in great demand. Wrong and spoiled feed or too much feed endangers the health of the animals, they can even die from it, which has also happened before.
Long necks: These two fallow deer ladies are very wild with the pellets in the packages from the feeder and the tap and stretch on the neck. | Photo: Ursula Freudig
The feed supply is not only time consuming, but also economically expensive. Although the city of Waldshut-Tiengen takes over the staff costs for Andreas Armbruster and Hubert Rossa, the association that supports the game reserve must generate around 60,000 euros per year to survive. Most of this amount is for the food.
More articles about Waldshut Game Reserve
It started with a stream 50 years ago, today around 200 animals live in the Waldshut game reserve
Already escaped three times: Ibex from Waldshut Game Reserve enjoys the freedom of the Hotzenwald
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The chairman of the association Wildgehege Waldshut, Werner Jockers, tells in an interview about the beginning and development