Mittwoch, 17. Oktober 2018

Very rare mammals in Germany - Part I. Mainland mammals and bats

In late September 2015 a Sowerby's Beaked Whale was found in the German Baltic Sea, showing very nicely, keeping close to the shore and often leaping out of the water. When German birders heard of it, some decided to twitch this animal. Surely, if there had been some kind of mammal rankings - as they exist by the hundreds for birds - this species had to be an absolute blocker, even for world listers. Very few people have ever laid eyes on one of these enigmatic and rare creatures. Even Jon Hall, who has seen several thousand species of mammals and can be called the father of something called "mammalwatching", a movement quite similar to birding, hasn't seen this species yet during his hundreds of trips.

Less than a year later the German Club300 published the first complete lists of mammal species in Germany and in the Western Palaearctic. The interest in these lists and the associated rankings was big. Many discussions arose, but it was obvious that the normally so well informed birding community lacked knowledge about rarer mammals. There were questions about taxonomy (is Moufflon a true species?), status (is the population of Eastern Chipmunk self-sustaining?), occurrence (does Northern White-breasted Hedgehog really reach Germany?), etc.
Unfortunately, only few people could join the discussions as knowledge about mammals and their occurrence was very limited and information about them sparse and scattered throughout the internet.
Unlike with birds, there are no rarity committees, there's no big mammal watching community in Germany yet and identification difficulties plus the hidden nature of most species make it unlikely to stumble upon rare mammals by chance.
Nevertheless, it's astonishing to see how many vagrant mammals have already reached Germany, especially given the fact that most mammals travel much shorter distances (if at all) than migratory birds and have more trouble to cross barriers, such as rivers, mountains and seas.

Here, I try to summarize all observations of rare and very rare mammals in Germany. By this, I mean species that do not normally reproduce in or routinely migrate through Germany or its adjacent waters. I have furthermore included species that have only recently gone extinct in Germany and some very range-restricted introduced species. For many species the data will not be complete as information is often outdated, incomplete and hard to find.
The Club300 list currently lists 124 species for Germany, but misses a species (European Bison) and includes two that have possibly not yet been safely recorded in Germany (Northern White-breasted Hedgehog, Monticelli's Myotis).

I hope to spark some debate in the scientific and mammalwatching communities in Europe, that could help with digging up further information on rare mammals in Germany and elsewhere. I encourage everybody to do the same for other countries and thus further help the understanding and knowledge we have of these species today. I will update this post whenever I receive new information.

Red-necked Wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus)
Category E - introduced
Several Wallabies of the tasmanian subspecies rufogriseus were forcefully set free from a petting zoo on March 7th 2001 in Burg Stargard in northeastern Germany. Eventhough 7 of them were successfully returned, one male and two females managed to avoid recapture and have formed a small population of free-roaming kangaroos in Germany. There have been previous introduction attempts with kangaroos being introduced in Hesse between 1850 and 1920 on the Rhine island Kühkopf (and occurring until 1945), in 1887 near Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia) and in 1889 in Altdöbern (Brandenburg). An individual of the Altdöbern population even reached Saxony in 1896. The animals started to reproduce but were eventually all poached or shot by hunters who thought they didn't belong in this environment. Wild populations of Wallabies in France and the UK show that they can survive in our latitudes. Occasional escapees are reported throughout the country, e.g. in Baden-Württemberg, Lower-Saxony, Saarland, Saxony, Thuringia, etc.


European Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus citellus)
Category A - extinct in Germany, currently being reintroduced
The northernmost population of European Ground Squirrels in the world lived in the eastern Erz Mountains in Saxony. Unfortunately it went extinct due to changes in agriculture between the 1960s and 80s.
Since 2006 a project tries to reintroduce Ground Squirrels near Geising, however this project is still far away from succeeding.

Siberian Chipmunk (Tamias sibiricus)
Siberian Chipmunk in Aschaffenburg (Bavaria, 2016)  
© Martin Gottschling
Category C - introduced
Several small populations existed in many places, e.g. in Freiburg/Breisgau (1969-2005), Ingolstadt (1990s), Wuppertal (1990s-2000s), Münster (1970s-late 80s), Essen (1965-present), Remagen (2000s-present) and Aschaffenburg (1990s-present). Some of these existed for many years and the animals were quite numerous (e.g. around 200 animals on the Lauheide graveyard near Münster), all but the one in Aschaffenburg (Park Schöntal) and in Remagen (Wildpark Rolandseck) have now perhaps disappeared. The population in Aschaffenburg supposedly numbered 70-90 individuals in the mid 2000s but is believed to be declining. Information is very thin, but there are probably also still Chipmunks in Essen (Heissiwald). Occasionally escaped pets are reported throughout Germany, e.g. in Saxony.

Eastern Chipmunk in Wuppertal (North Rhine-Westphalia,
2016)  © Martin Gottschling
Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus)
Category E - introduced
On June 17th 1963 eight Eastern Chipmunks were released into the zoo of Wuppertal and their ancestors roam freely ever since. Eventhough enough years have passed for this species to be included in category C, the Chipmunks still rely on visitors feeding them nuts and the protection against predators (such as cats) from the zoo it might be more sensible to keep this species in category E.

Forest Dormouse (Dryomys nitedula)
Category A - very rare resident - 10 records
This species has only been recorded in the valleys of Isar and Inn in Bavaria in the southernmost regions of Germany. All but one belonged to the subspecies intermedius.
  • 1955, county Freyung-Grafenau (ssp. carpathicus)
  • 4x 1968 and older, twice county Rosenheim, once Bad-Tölz,-Wolfratshausen once Berchtesgardener Land
  • 3x 1985/1986, Inn valley near Oberaudorf and Nußdorf (Rosenheim): found in nesting boxes
  • 1993, north of Eibsee (Garmisch-Partenkirchen): found dead on street
  • 2010, Brannenburg (Rosenheim): Female with youngsters in nesting box
Bavarian Pine Vole in Brandenberger Alpen
(Tirol/Austria, 2017)  © factcatdog
Bavarian Pine Vole (Microtus bavaricus)
Category A - extinct in Germany - last and only record 1962
This species was only discovered and described in 1962, when 23 animals were caught in mousetraps near Garmisch-Partenkirchen. After this, the species could never be refound in Germany and the original discovery site has been covered by a hospital. The only remaining population that has been found of this species lies in Tirol/Austria, but is under severe threat of extinction due to changes in the agricultural use. The search for further populations continues.

Northern White-breasted (Eastern) Hedgehog (Erinaceus roumanicus)
Possibly not yet recorded in Germany, maybe category B
This species is listed on the Club300 species list, due to the IUCN map showing an occurrence of this species in easternmost Germany. However, I believe this map is not entirely exact. In the german red list (2009) the following is stated (translated):
"The species currently does not occur in Germany. If the species has ever occurred in Germany remains questionable. Possibly, the existing records belong to displaced or imported and not to autochthonous individuals." 
In the mammal atlas of Saxony the following can be found:
"Due to a publication by HERTER (1934) it was long assumed that the entire eastern German border region was being inhabitated by E. roumanicus. Only for Brandenburg (Oderbruch, Hasenfelde near Lebus, and Berlin) could a revision of material in scientific collections confirm a presence (ANSORGE 1987b). All specimens originate from earlier than 1945, and at least for the record from Berlin a human-induced displacement is assumed."
In the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern red list old records from Usedom are mentioned.
Due to these uncertainties, I would currently suggest to delete this species from the German list. The possibility of this species occurring in Germany is however definitely existing, given how extremely close it occurs to the German border in Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland (in some places less than 15km).

European Free-tailed Bat (Tadarida teniotis)
Free-tailed Bat found in Kumhausen (Bavaria, 2014)   
© Christian Winkler
Category A - Very rare vagrant - at least 2 records
Two definitive records could be found from southern Germany, but indications for another male, also from Landshut, being rehabbed, and a record from Stuttgart (Dietz & Kiefer 2014) were found.
Giant Noctule (Nyctalus lasiopterus)
Category A - Very rare vagrant - 2 records
The Giant Noctule has only be recorded twice in Germany. Other claims have been shown to refer to other species (Dietz & Kiefer 2014).
Savi's Pipistrelle (Hypsugo savii)
Category A - rare visitor to Germany - over 11 records
This species was possibly once widespread in the Bavarian Forest, but went extinct in 1951. Luckily, records of Savi's Pipistrelle are becoming more frequent in recent years and several acoustic records leave hope that this species might be on the return to Germany. Most animals far north of the normal range are believed to have travelled as stow away with cargo. Vagrants or human-assisted bats have been reported e.g. from Scotland, London and Jersey. With recent developments it seems likely that Germany could soon be recolonized.
Monticelli's Myotis (Myotis oxygnathus)
Not yet safely recorded from Germany - Possibly category A
An animal caught in Entringen (Tübingen) showed measurements that lie within the overlap region with Greater Mouse-eared Bat (Myotis myotis). Genetics apparently don't help with identification, so that this record can't be safely assigned to Monticelli's Myotis, even though general impression of size and structure strongly points towards this identification. Another claim from Hochstädt/Aisch (Erlangen-Höchstädt) from 1994 needs to be investigated further, but possibly refers to another species (e.g. Lesser Horseshoe Bat?).

Schreiber's Long-fingered Bat in Kiel (2012)  
© Karl Kugelschreiber
Schreiber's Long-fingered Bat (Miniopterus schreibersii)
Category A - Extinct in Germany, very rare vagrant - 3 records since extinction
This species might have once been part of the German fauna but apart from a nursery roost in 1890 and a colony that existed from at least 1951 to 1960 nothing was found. While numbers of up to 500 individuals were counted in the first two years in Sasbach, the colony began to shrink in following years and eventually the species went extinct in Germany.
Golden Jackal (Canis aureus)
Category A - Rare vagrant - at least 12 records
This species lives in southeastern Europe and was recorded for the first time in Germany in the late 90s. Since then several more jackals have been recorded through very different techniques. Jackals seem to stray very far on occasion as is shown by recent observations in the Baltic countries, Poland, Denmark or in the Netherlands. The current records are concentrated in eastern Germany, where it seems possible that Jackals might become resident.
The track of Bruno/JJ1 along the German-Austrian border.
© Stefan-Xp
Brown Bear (Ursus arctos)
Category A - Extinct in Germany, very rare vagrant - 1 modern-time record
Bears used to roam through most of Germany many hundred years ago, but became more and more rare due to enormous hunting pressure. The last one was supposedly shot 1835 in southern Bavaria (Ruhpolding). In 2006 a bear from northern Italy was finally observed for two months along the Bavarian-Austrian border, the first one in Germany since 170 years. It's official name was JJ1, but it was dubbed "Bruno" by the media, which gave the Bear great coverage. It was born in 2004, from two Slovenian bears, that had been transferred to Italy to save a dwindling population near Adamello-Brenta. Due to the bear sometimes approaching human settlements and occasionally feeding on livestock and propelled by the media, the fear of some humans eventually became so big that it was decided the bear had to be removed. Initially, the shooting of the bear was allowed, but because of a public outcry this permission was withdrawn. The attempt to catch the bear alive went fruitless for three weeks, before the bear was eventually shot after all on 26. June near Spitzingsee
  • 20.5.-26.6.2006, wandering along Bavarian-Austrian border, constantly switching sides, 2 years old, from Italy, shot on 26.6.06 near Spitzingsee (Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, Miesbach, Rosenheim)
European Mink (Mustela lutreola)
Category B - Extinct in Germany, currently being reintroduced - Last record possibly 1925
The European Mink went extinct in most of Europe due to high hunting pressure for its fur, destruction of habitat and competition with the introduced American Mink (Neovison vison). The last Mink in Germany was shot 1925 in the Aller valley in Lower-Saxony. Reintroduction schemes exist near Osnabrück (2000-2009), in Saarland (since 2006) and in Nature Park Steinhuder Meer near Hannover (since 2010). All of these projects have generated at least some reproduction success.

Eurasian Elk in Görlitz (Saxony, 2015) © Steve Klasan
Eurasian Elk (Moose) (Alces alces)
Category A - rare resident in Germany
Elks used to occur throughout Germany hundreds of years ago, but went extinct due to hunting pressure and habitat destruction. Unknown to most, Elks have now returned and have already become regular part of the German mammal fauna. They occur in the easternmost regions of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg and Saxony. Some individuals sometimes stray further west and have been observed in North Rhine-Westfalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hessen and Bavaria.
There have been over 50 recent-time records from Saxony alone, including one mother and her calf in 1994/95. For Mecklenburg-Vorpommern a near constant prensence is assumed, this hypothesis is supported e.g. by 6 Elks that were shot in 1986 near Neubrandenburg alone. In Brandenburg 20 to 50 observations per year are reported, several Elks have become victims of collisions with cars.
Most, if not all (except maybe the calfs in 1994/95 and 2008) of these animals are believed to be immigrants from Poland and the Czech Republic, where numbers are thriving.

European Bison (Bos bonasus)
Category A - Extinct in Germany, very rare vagrant, currently being reintroduced - 1 modern-time record
Germany used to be entirely part of the European Bisons natural range until several centuries ago. However, the species faded away under an enormous hunting pressure. The last free-roaming Bison was shot in 1927 in the Caucasus. When the last one was shot in Germany isn't entirely clear. Fortunately, some Bisons survived in captivity and a reproduction scheme was put in place. The Bison population has since grown to around 3000 free-living animals (all descending from just 12 individuals!). A great part of the population currently lives in Poland, from where a Bison originated, that roamed peacefully through western Poland. On September 13th 2017 it was discovered near Lebus in Brandenburg, apparently just having crossed the River Oder. Here, it was shot by two hunters just two hours after the discovery, after they had insinuated a danger for humans and thus gotten the permission to kill it.
Since 2013 European Bisons are being reintroduced in the Rothaargebirge, where eight animals were initially released. Currently more than 23 European Bisons are roaming freely through Germany. Further Bisons live under almost wild conditions in a 2000 ha enclosure in the Döberitzer Heide near Berlin and in Siegen-Wittgenstein (North Rhine-Westphalia).
For more comfortable reading I have split this article into two parts. This part I only deals with mainland mammals and bat. Part II (Marine mammals) will soon be added.

Acknowledgements:
I'd like to thank everyone involved in compiling the above information and those who kindly provided the pictures, in particular Martin Gottschling, Steve Klasan, Karl Kugelschafter, Christian Dietz, Christian Winkler and the Club300.de-team
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