The Wildlife
Known scientifically as Vulpes vulpes, this highly adaptable, orange-furred predator is called Rotfuchs in Germany.
What is the Red Fox?
Introduced from North America for the fur trade, this highly adaptable mammal with a mask-like face, known scientifically as Procyon lotor, is widely established in the Black Forest, where it raids native bird nests.
What is the Raccoon?
Deep within the forest, a poor woodcutter's children use pebbles and breadcrumbs to find their way home, only to stumble upon a house made of gingerbread and sugar.
What is Hansel and Gretel?
This classic square frame—often 0.5 meter by 0.5 meter—is laid on the ground to isolate a sample area for estimating plant populations or calculating percentage cover.
What is a quadrat?
Composed of a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae, these organisms blanket Black Forest trees and act as highly sensitive indicators of air quality, entirely disappearing if sulfur dioxide levels rise.
What are lichens?
The scientific name Canis lupus belongs to this apex predator, which has naturally started migrating back into the Southern Black Forest.
What is the Gray Wolf?
This aggressive insect species, Vespa velutina, arrived in Europe via a shipping container and is actively expanding through the Black Forest, posing a severe threat to local honeybee populations.
What is the Asian Hornet?
This iconic, red-caped character wanders off the forest path to pick flowers for her grandmother, ignoring her mother's warnings about the wilderness.
What is Little Red Riding Hood?
This digital handheld sensor provides instant, real-time data measuring the acidity or alkalinity of a water sample on a scale from 0 to 14.
What is a pH meter?
This telescope-snorkeled aquatic larva thrives in heavily polluted, oxygen-starved forest waters, serving as a biological indicator of poor water quality and high organic waste
What is the rat-tailed maggot?
Meles meles is the scientific name for this nocturnal mammal, famous for digging massive underground burrow networks called setts.
What is the European Badger?
Thick infestations of Fallopia japonica can be found along Black Forest waterways like the Kinzig River, outcompeting native flora with its fast-growing, bamboo-like stalks.
What is Japanese Knotweed?
Banished into the dark woods by a jealous queen, a beautiful princess flees into the mountains where she finds shelter with seven mining dwarves.
What is Snow White?
Lowered into lakes or oceans, this simple black-and-white patterned circle is used by researchers to measure water clarity and turbidity.
What is a Secchi disk?
Found in clean, rapid mountain streams of the Black Forest, the abundance of these sensitive, multi-tailed insect nymphs indicates pristine, highly oxygenated water conditions.
What are stonefly nymphs (or mayfly nymphs)?
Classified under the scientific name Castor fiber, this industrious mammal modifies local streams and rivers by constructing dams.
What is the Eurasian Beaver?
Clue: Featuring explosive seed pods that can launch seeds up to 7 meters, Impatiens glandulifera dominates riverbanks and damp areas of the forest, displacing native vegetation.
What is Himalayan Balsam (or Policeman's Helmet)?
Condemned by a 15th fairy's curse, Princess Briar Rose and her entire castle fall into a century-long slumber as a massive wall of thorns swallows them up.
What is Sleeping Beauty?
Vital for checking the health of aquatic ecosystems, this electronic sensor measures the concentration of gaseous O2 available to fish and macroinvertebrates.
What is a dissolved oxygen probe?
The return of this apex predator to the Southern Black Forest triggers a trophic cascade by altering deer grazing patterns, allowing over-browsed native trees like the Silver Fir to naturally regenerate. This makes it a keystone species.
What is the Gray wolf?
Sharing its home with local firs, this dark-needled coniferous tree bears the specific scientific name Pinus nigra.
What is the Black Pine (or Austrian Pine)?
Though native to parts of Europe, massive outbreaks of Ips typographus have been severely exacerbated by climate change, turning monoculture spruce plantations in the Black Forest into ecological dead zones.
What is the European Spruce Bark Beetle?
Rather than a fairy godmother, the Grimm version features a magical hazel tree planted at her mother's grave that grants wishes with the help of white doves.
What is Cinderella (Aschenputtel)?
Inserting the metallic prongs of this electronic sensor into the ground allows field researchers to measure the volumetric water content of the dirt.
What is a soil moisture probe?
Sporting distinctive ear tufts and a spotted coat, this elusive wild cat serves as a primary flagship species used to raise public support and funding for preserving large, contiguous corridors of the Black Forest.
What is the Eurasian lynx?