Capercaillie monitoring in the Bavarian Forest National Park

What is this project about?

The capercaillie Tetrao urogallus is an extremely sensitive bird species and is rarely seen in Germany nowadays.

It can still be found in the Bavarian Forest National Park. To learn more about the habits and whereabouts of these shy birds, the national park is conducting a multi-year acoustic monitoring programme called the ‘RangerSound Project’.

What does OekoFor do?

We have been supporting the national park since 2024 with our ecoPi recorders for acoustic monitoring.

The data from the recorders will help to better understand land use and document the use of mating grounds. In addition, the presence of individuals can be recorded throughout the year in areas that are difficult to access.
Live transmission and viewing of recorded acoustic data in the ecoPi-dashboard enables prompt action. This allows the national park administration to respond in a targeted manner, for example by directing visitors accordingly so that the sensitive birds are not disturbed.

Find out more about the ecoPi-System and the ecoPi-Dashboard ↗

Further links

• On the Bavarian Forest National Park website you can find out more about the RangerSound-project ↗ (only available in German)

• The national park’s digital newspaper ‘Unser wilder Wald’ (Our Wild Forest) is also worth browsing through: in the free downloadable summer edition 2024 (2024/2), you will find an article about the RangerSound project on page 14 entitled Sound of Woid ↗ (only available in German)

Sponsors & Partner

The project is funded by the German Environmental Foundation (DBU). It is managed and coordinated by the Bavarian Forest National Park. Other partners involved are the University of Würzburg and Chemnitz University of Technology.