From the moment he is born, a red deer calf faces a life-long struggle to survive in his new home — the mountain wilderness of the Austrian Alps. His first six weeks are filled with exploration and discovery of his world, under the watchful eye of his mother. When he is ready, he and his mother journey along age-old migration paths from the forests up to the high mountain meadows, where the beginning of summer brings life and renewal to the slopes. There, they join other red deer mothers and their calves. The stags have already arrived, their antlers covered in tender velvet — and growing quickly.

Featuring panoramic scenes of lush landscapes, Prince of the Alps travels high into the mountains, where chamois and ibex are right at home on the nearly vertical cliffs, marmots emerge late from hibernation, and red deer prove their agility. The little prince enjoys special status in the herd, thanks to his mother’s social rank. She leads him to the best feeding places and teaches him about his new surroundings. His first brush with civilization is a herdsman calling out to his cattle. Unlike drivers on the roads, and the hunters and hikers who also invade their world, the herdsman poses no threat to deer in the mountains. The young calf also learns his first lesson about dangerous weather in the mountains, where storms rage and lighting kills.

In September, the mountains echo with the calls of the great red deer stags. During the six weeks or so of the autumn rut, the stags compete for the chance to father next year’s calves before the seasons change and winter claims the mountains. Snow, ice, cold, and hunger will also claim their share of the herds before spring returns. Many deer find it hard to feed and finding shelter takes all the energy they have.

Seven months into his life, the little prince is left alone and his chances of survival are slim. But when the sights and sounds of spring once again appear, and the red deer mothers and calves make their way up to the high mountain pastures, a one-year-old red deer calf with tiny antlers sets out with them. He has earned his place as Prince of the Alps.

Online content for Prince of the Alps was originally posted May 2008.

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General Information

“The Red Deer Cervus elaphus” – World Deer
http://www.worlddeer.org/reddeer.html
This Web site provides information on red deer, including habitat, behavior, and physical description.

“Cervus elaphus” – University of Michigan, Animal Diversity Web
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Cervus_elaphus.html
Additional information on red deer can be found on this site.

“Land of plenty: Austria’s red deer feast on handouts and live half the year in fenced enclosures. Can they still fend for themselves?” – Natural History Magazine
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_10_114/ai_n15970386
This article discusses red deer’s dependence on winter food handouts.

“OECD: Global warming could spell ruin for Alps” – Telegraph.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/12/14/ccalps14.xml
This news piece discusses the ramifications of climate change on the European ski industry in the Alps.

“Best Males Have Less Successful Daughters” – Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070705095207.htm
This article relates the results of a study, published in the periodical Nature, that found that the red deer males with the most mating success tended to have less fertile female offspring.

“Why Female Deer Like A Stag To Be A Big Noise In The Forest” – Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070619194453.htm
According to researchers at the University of Sussex, the quality of a male red deer’s mating call is an important factor in sexual selection.

Green Bridges

“Right of Way” – Audubon Magazine
http://audubonmagazine.org/cuttingedge/cuttingedge0306.html
“Every year, all kinds of wildlife, including many endangered species, are killed crossing America’s highways. Now biologists and land planners are teaming up to design ecofriendly roads that animals can traverse without having to risk life and limb.”

“Conservationists Blaze Trails for Wildcats” – Spiegel Online
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,506962,00.html
“Biologists are planning what promises to be Central Europe’s biggest conservation project. They intend to connect all of Germany’s major national parks with woodland corridors to ensure the survival of endangered forest creatures. The wildcat is the poster child of Germany’s new environmental offensive.”

“Of Moose and Mud” – U.S. Department of Transportation
http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/05sep/05.htm
“Why did the moose cross the road? The answer, according to researchers, often is to visit a wet, muddy, mineral deposit on the other side.”

BOOKS & PRINT

Clutton-Brock, T. H., F. E. Guinness, and S. D. Albon. Red Deer: Behavior and Ecology of Two Sexes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

Krajick, Kevin. “Climate Change: All Downhill From Here?” Science. 12 Mar 2004. Vol. 303. no. 5664, pp. 1600-1602. [Discusses effects of climate change on high-mountain ecosystems.]

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Uncertain Future for the Alpine Red Deer

However inhospitable the weather may turn in the highest regions of the Austrian Alps, evolution has equipped the diverse species that claim these heights as their home with the ability to survive. The variations in weather are often sudden and intense, and the adaptations and perseverance required of these alpine creatures in order to ensure species survival are remarkable.

Throughout the year, Austria’s red deer roam the alpine environment in search of food. In summer, the red deer migrate to the highest altitudes and can stay there all season long. But, over the course of the season, the force of the elements can vary widely. Frequent lightning strikes can decimate entire herds that frequent these regions. If the mountain grasslands go dry or are over-grazed by local herds, the red deer will move down the mountainside to lower pastures where there may be more vegetation.

Come autumn, the red deer descend to lower elevations in the forested river valleys and graze on vegetation there before the long, grueling winter. When winter arrives, the landscape is transformed. Snow accumulation can exceed a person’s height in just a few days. Red deer forage for the sparse remaining vegetation on the cliffs, where winds have cleared the snow and left patches of plant life. The strongest deer are able to adapt and reduce their need to eat in winter. As they take in fewer calories, their heart rate, body temperature and metabolism are drastically lowered, and they slow down to reduce their energy expenditure.

In winter, snow accumulation can exceed a person’s height in just a few days.

Humans are changing everything and disrupting the process of natural selection. Many deer in the Alps can no longer survive the seasons on their own because they have come to depend on handouts from local landowners, farmers and even hunters who put out food to attract the deer. Austria’s red deer management program, too, in an effort to keep deer populations large enough to guarantee hunting success, have set up feeding stations in fenced enclosures near roads, where many deer spend more than half the year.

Each year it gets more difficult for the red deer to fend for themselves as humans encroach on their terrain. Busy roads, hunting stations, eco-unfriendly ski resorts, and the effects of global warming are threatening the long-term stability of red deer populations.

Along with the fenced enclosures for feeding, roads and highways are disrupting the deer’s migration route. More than 10 million trucks and about 50 million cars cross the Alps each year. Seventy-seven million tons of cargo move through the mountains in an average year, including furniture, chemicals, livestock, mineral water and automobiles. By 2020, some predict, Trans-Alpine commercial transport will double. The mountains concentrate the fumes from all these vehicles, and the greenhouse gas emissions are trapped in narrow valleys. The rapid increase in these carbon-emitting fossil fuels is expected to have a profound effect on the climate of the Alps. For the red deer, the problem is that they have adapted to the cold, barren conditions of Austria’s Alpine region. Biologists fear that if the temperature keeps rising, many alpine animals will face quick declines or extinction. According to the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, the Alps are warmer today than anytime in the past 1,300 years. Some creatures have adapted to the constantly changing and gradually more restrictive environment — shifting breeding and migration dates, according to Science Magazine. But the red deer have fewer places to migrate, since they are surrounded by roads and ski resorts.

In 2007, Austria held an international conference on how to cope with the warm winters and lack of snowfall caused by global warming. However, the focus of the conference was not the animals and their habitat, but rather the impact of climate change on tourism and ski resorts. Austria’s Federal Forest Administration is working with land owners, communities and traffic authorities to protect wildlife corridors by building green bridges. And, ski resorts in the Alps are answering the demand for sustainable tourism by offering incentives for visitors who use public transportation and hybrid cars. But even with these green initiatives, it’s uncertain what lies ahead for these mountain dwellers when human encroachment and global warming threaten their natural resources and habitat.

by Jill Clarke

Like many New Yorkers, I am a commuter. I take the bus to the train for a journey that will take about an hour and a half total. My bus travels past a beautiful woody area that includes a public park, bike trails and nature preserves all filled with wildlife that sometimes approaches the roads, narrowly escaping the wheels of a fast-moving stream of vehicles. Other times, wildlife is not so lucky. This susceptibility of wildlife to vehicular collisions is a big problem, but solutions are beginning to take hold in a variety of ways in many countries.

I am Jill Clarke, one of the producers of the NATURE series. I just finished working on Prince of the Alps, a beautifully shot high-definition program about red deer in the Austrian Alps. The show mentions the high volume of cars and trucks that cross the Alps each day and the network of green bridges and wildlife corridors that have been built — structural passages above or sometimes beneath roadways that are designed to facilitate safe wildlife movement across them. Because of urban expansion, natural habitats across the globe are being disturbed — cutting off many animals from their feeding and breeding areas, as well as from escape and migratory routes. They are, therefore, at risk as they try to cross busy roads to access these vital areas. As mentioned in the show, “a deer by any road is an accident waiting to happen…”

As the owner of two small dogs that seem to be completely oblivious to oncoming traffic, walking them on a leash is not just the law, but an absolute necessity. All animals are experts at what they do, but most usually cannot navigate even the simplest of roads. And while I have never had any collisions with wildlife, many people are not as fortunate. According to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, approximately 200 people are killed each year on U.S. roads due to vehicle-wildlife collisions. Twenty-nine thousand people are seriously injured in such accidents, costing more than one billion in insurance costs each year.

Obviously, these collisions are taking their toll on wildlife as well. Millions of animals are killed on U.S. roads each year. In Southern Texas, accidents have reduced the number of an endangered cat, the ocelot, to about 80. And in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska, the number one predator of moose is the car.

Imagine the impact of striking a deer on the highways of Germany where there are stretches of road with no speed limit. To reduce collisions and preserve wildlife, the German Federal Forest Administration works with landowners, communities and traffic authorities to create and maintain wildlife corridors. As of 2002, 32 ‘green’ overpasses had been built in Germany — the largest number in any country so far. Eight more were under construction and twenty more planned.

In an attempt to ensure the survival of endangered animals, biologists are currently planning what promises to be Central Europe’s biggest conservation project to date. Working with transportation officials, they intend to build wildlife corridors to connect all of Germany’s major national parks.

France was the first European country to develop green bridges for wildlife, in the 1950’s. As of 2000, nearly 400 structures for wildlife passage had been built including viaducts, bridges, pipe conduits, overpasses and underpasses. Like structures have also been built in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Slovenia.

Several similar projects have also been implemented throughout the United States. In Florida, the construction of road traffic bridges — extended farther than what is required by law — allows Florida panthers and other wildlife to safely cross underneath them. Large drainage pipes and box culverts in Virginia’s Great Dismal Swamp help to protect 21 species of snakes and 58 species of turtles, lizards, salamanders, frogs, and toads. And bobcats and coyotes are provided with enlarged underpasses in California, to name a few.

Hopefully, with global adoption of programs such as these and others still to be created, the number of deaths and accidents among both people and animals due to wildlife-vehicle collisions will decrease substantially.

As my bus expertly weaves through traffic, I realize just how intricate the network of roads, bridges and tunnels is here in New York. I am dropped off at my next commuting destination, the number 6 train, which will weave through a network of underground passageways designed for another kind of wildlife… New Yorkers!