Peter and Paul Wildlife Park
| Peter and Paul Wildlife Park | ||
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| particularities | Admission is free, open around the clock |
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| place | Kirchlistrasse 92 9010 St. Gallen Switzerland |
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| opening | February 16, 1892 | |
| organization | ||
| management | Regula Signer, park attendant | |
| Sponsorship | Wildlife Park Society | |
 The enclosure of the Alpine ibex |
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| http://www.wildpark-peterundpaul.ch/ | ||
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Coordinates: 47 ° 26 '55 " N , 9 ° 23' 15" E ; CH1903: seven hundred forty-six thousand nine hundred seventy / 257138
The Peter and Paul Wildlife Park is located on the Rosenberg hill northeast of St. Gallen in the Rotmonten district . It is part of an important local recreation area in the city. The wildlife park is home to various mainly native species such as ibex , chamois , lynx , deer , wild boar , marmots and wild cats . Admission is free and possible around the clock and all year round. The wildlife park has a visitor center.
The park has a restaurant with a terrace. It is owned by the local community of St. Gallen.
history
The beginnings of the wildlife park
After the former deer enclosure on Jägerstraße had to be abandoned in 1890, the St. Gallen section of the Swiss Hunters and Wildlife Conservation Association acquired the area on the initiative of forest manager Martin Wild with the aim of being able to show the residents of the city the native wild animal species in as natural an environment as possible . On May 1, 1892, the wildlife park was opened with 12 red deer, eight fallow deer, four deer, five chamois, eight marmots and two hares. Two years later, a separate sponsoring company was set up to manage the business.
The enclosures are exceptionally large for a zoo from this era (up to several hectares ) and are still considered to be “exemplary” today. Between 1902 and 1917, a total of four artificial rocks were built in the park by the Zurich sculptor Urs Eggenschwiler to keep and raise ibex . These are still in use today after several renovations.
Raising and relocating ibex
The park is well known for its successful rearing of ibexes. At the end of the 19th century, the heraldic animal in Switzerland was exterminated by excessive hunting. The attempt to raise the purebred young animals from the hunting grounds of the Italian King Viktor Emanuel III. to obtain failed initially. The king refused to give the St. Gallen young animals from his hunting ground on Gran Paradiso .
At the suggestion of Alfred Girtaner, the members of the wildlife park commission decided to breed ibex in the wildlife park. The hotelier Robert Mader and the archaeologist and curator of the Nature Museum St. Gallen , Emil Bächler , were supposed to implement this undertaking. Contacts were made with the poacher Joseph Beyrard from Aymavilles in the Aosta Valley and in 1906 he was persuaded to smuggle three young animals from the king's hunting grounds into the wildlife park. Only 5 years later, the first ibex were released in the Weisstannental in the area of the gray horns. Further colonies followed in 1914 on Piz d'Aela and in 1920 in the Graubünden National Park. Initially, the exposure attempts were not very successful. Only over time and with the continuation of the abandonment of animals in various areas of Switzerland, including in the Valais and the Bernese Oberland, the project was granted success. Today ibex are again very numerous in Switzerland, so that kills are necessary. Today more than 40,000 ibex live in the entire Alpine region. This is also due to the fact that the natural enemies such as lynxes and bears were also exterminated and are still only in very small numbers in the Alpine region today.
Further development of the park area
In 1926/27 the park area was enlarged from 3.38 to 4.45 hectares. Special enclosures for marmots, wild boars and lynxes were subsequently added.
Two major epidemics wiped out animal populations: paratuberculosis 1945–51 the entire ibex population and 1971–72 bovine tuberculosis the deer population.
In the 1990s, the attempt to create an enclosure for bears had failed due to years of political and financial debates, as well as building regulations. The bears would have been given to the city whose heraldic animals they are.
In 2017, for the 125th anniversary of the game park in 2017, the game park was equipped with new enclosures, a viewing platform made of natural stone, a forest adventure playground and interactive stations for visitors.
Animal breeding
The following animals are raised in the zoo and some are released in the Alpine region:
Ibex
Red deer
- Fallow deer
- Red deer
- Sika deer , the only non-native species in the park
Cats
Other
Web links and sources
- Website of the wildlife park Peter and Paul
- City of St. Gallen, a geographical and historical local history; School administration of the city of St. Gallen
- Marco Giacometti: About kings and poachers. The rescue and resettlement of alpine ibex. Salm-Verlag, 2006.
- 125 years of the Peter and Paul Wildlife Park ( memento from August 19, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (images). In: Tagblatt
Individual evidence
- ↑ Visitor information on the wildlife park . Retrieved October 8, 2018.
- ↑ St. Galler Tagblatt of August 21, 2010: Wildlife Park Peter and Paul very popular , report on a study on the state of the wildlife parks
- ↑ Jost Schneider: Ibexes saved, but the climbing rocks fall apart. (PDF) In: Hubertus Aktuell 3/2008. St. Gallischer Jägerverein Hubertus, accessed on July 16, 2017 .
- ↑ Jost Schneider: Hunters, poachers and ibexes. (PDF) In: Hubertus Aktuell 1/2008. St. Gallischer Jägerverein Hubertus, accessed on July 16, 2017 .
- ↑ Louis Mettler: Peter and Paul Wildlife Park: home to native wild animals for over 100 years. In: Appenzeller Calendar 277 . 1998.
- ^ Karl Müller: 125 years of the Peter and Paul Wildlife Park. Anniversary projects. (PDF) Wildlife Park Society Peter and Paul, accessed on July 16, 2017 .