Long-Eared Owl and Pipistrelle
A conversation with Paula Firmbach from Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv, Sandra Mänty—a wildlife researcher—and Laura. The audio is only accessible in German.
Sometimes the needs of animals can also affect city politics. For example, Paula from Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv told us that a long-eared owl was spotted in the cemetery. Long-eared owls are protected and with them the environment in which they live. It has a brown marbled plumage, is about forty centimeters tall and its wings can spread almost to a meter. It is active only at night, and with its orange glowing eyes it searches mainly for mice and other small rodents. I have never seen or heard one myself, but I read that in search of a partner it calls with a muffled “ooh” and gives a high-pitched squeak when danger threatens. There are also pipistrelles, a certain type of bat, at the New St. Jacobi Cemetery. Paula from Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv and Sandra Mänty, who observes animals in the cemetery, told us a bit more about them.
Laura:
It's likely that there will be construction here at some point, isn't it?
It depends. There are areas in the front and in the back that could be used immediately. In the back there were only storage areas, which are not dedicated at all and here in the front—the area where the gastronomy is—that's called a commercial zone. However, there could be—similar to the other cemetery—a block edge building in front, while in the back there is not so much happening for the time being. There was a long-eared owl that was nesting and those are always the kinds of things that shift everything.
It was a long-eared owl. On the political level, these are species that are strictly protected. They are listed as endangered or even threatened with extinction. If they are detected, it has an impact of course. Then something can't take place without at least offering compensatory measures elsewhere. Depending on which animals can be found in that area—but also plants, they are also protected—that will have an impact. For nature conservation, so-called human interests take precedence. That means that even though there may be protected animals and plants, that place might still be built on.
I myself have not been to the cemetery at night yet, once a little later in the evening looking for hedgehogs—not looking for owls—but I know, for example, that there are bats. And all bat species in Germany are strictly protected. That, of course, will also have an influence on what happens to the cemetery later. Presumably, they might be pipistrelles for the simple reason that they are most common in Berlin and cope quite well with the different habitats and conditions.
The owl depends on trees. For them, bushes and daisies are not enough. This is a large and heavy bird that builds its nests in trees. The trees must also have a certain age. We are aware of this problem, gardeners are aware of this problem. Many animals, including insects, depend on old trees and old wood. And we're certainly going to lose some of those wonderful trees that are there. First, even trees don't live indefinitely, and second, it's just too dry these days. The trees are suffering. You have been there yourselves, you have seen the pines that have fallen, unfortunately there will be more of them and not less. But the gardeners foster trees. They are trying to let a few maples grow larger, because it can be assumed that the maple will cope a little better in the future. It is not so sensitive to drought. It can withstand phases of prolonged drought and would then perhaps be a good substitute for the trees that will not be able to cope so well in the future. Such a tree needs many decades to grow tall.
The bats also need something like the trees for nesting. Now they have boxes placed there for them, which is very practical, they usually accept them gladly. An important aspect with the bats is to avoid light pollution—so you don't put lights everywhere. Some bats hunt around lights because lights attract insects, but not all. Quite a lot of bats avoid lights. In this respect, you should not continue to put lamps in the cemetery. And of course, bats are insectivores, they need insects—in other words, we need more plants in the cemetery that provide food for insects. It is very important to maintain the structure that is there now. To say we have bushes, we have grasses, we have trees, we have many different layers. You can replace different plants, as I said, climate change will also force that this has to be done, so that you can see that you have something of everything. You don't exactly have to create a pond—that might be a bit too much—but you could build birdbaths. Birdbaths are usually also very good for insects, if you put stones in them so that a bee can perch and drink—there are possibilities. All animals need water, that's the way it is.
But I'll say this, as you can see in the city all the time, animals are pretty adaptable. I think all they need is space and food. Those are the basics and that's it. Not all animals need quite a lot of space. There are some that need a lot of space, but they don't come to the city anyway. But, as I said, badgers are extremely shy. If they now even show themselves in the outskirts of the city in the gardens, then that also says something about the animals. Then they have discovered something for themselves and use that.
So that means that long-eared owls and also pipistrelles need old trees and boxes to live in the cemetery. Do you see some of the bat boxes above you in the trees? But in addition to a shelter, pipistrelle bats also need insects for food. Insects, in turn, need certain plants for food, and all together they need water.