Deutschlands wilde Tiere - Im Nationalpark Harz und Hochharz

The Harz Mountains in Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony, with their unspoilt forests and moors, are home to many rare animals, such as dippers, fire salamanders and black stork. Initially, they were protected here in two separate national parks, but since 2006 there has been a joint, transnational nature reserve for them. In the dead forest, it is not only woodpeckers and pygmy owls that benefit from the mass infestation of the bark beetle, but also the wildcat, which likes to give birth to its young under modern tree stumps. Especially the beech forests in the lower and warmer altitudes offer the wildcat hiding places for itself and its offspring. The capercaillie, which only became native again in the Harz Mountains through a reintroduction project, is also venturing into higher regions. The subalpine vegetation on the forest-free summit of the 1,141-metre-high Brocken, the roughest German mountain north of the Alps, is unique. Shrouded in fog for most of the year, it became the scene and subject of numerous myths and legends.