Research

Project Details:
Ohrerkrankungen, insbesondere Otitiden, stellen einen wichtigen Erkrankungskomplex bei Heimtierkaninchen dar. Die Arbeit soll die verschiedenen Therapieoptionen (konservative Verfahren versus chirurgische Behandlungsmöglichkeiten) vergleichend analysieren. Des Weiteren sollen etwaige Spätfolgen und das Auftreten von Rezidiven anhand von klinischen und bildgebenden Verfahren systematisch untersucht werden, um Rückschlüsse auf gewählte Therapieoptionen ziehen zu können.

Funding: BMBF, 212.548 EUR

Project Details:
We applied for an follow-up financing in order to increase the reach, the attractiveness as well as the functionaliy of the platform. Due to corona this was not possible to a sufficient extent within the originally planned projekt period. The following optimizations are now planned for the top-up phase:
Target group expansion to include interested non-scientists.
Networking of 3R-SMART with established online portals of external partners.
Integration of an area with Open-Educational-Resources.
Integration of a collection of contributions to 3R centers.
Integration of interactive elements into existing contributions.

Cooperation Partners:

Philipps-Universität Marburg

Funding: LKN, 49.979 EUR

Project Details:
Harbour porpoises are representatives of the top predators from the group of mammals in the North Sea and Wadden Sea. With the amendment of the National Park Act in 1999, part of the National Park was explicitly dedicated to harbour porpoise protection, as a high density of mother-calf pairs was found there. As part of the reorganisation of the Federal-and State Marine Programme (BLMP), a programme for joint monitoring of marine mammals was agreed in January 2011, which meets the requirements of monitoring according to the relevant European guidelines and international conventions. In this programme, the Schleswig-Holstein National Park Administration (NPV) in the Schleswig-Holstein State Agency for Coastal Protection, National Parks and Marine Conservation (LKN) has the task of organising, implementing and financing the acoustic monitoring of harbour porpoises. The acoustic surveys for the NPV are carried out by the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) as part of the joint marine mammal monitoring under the BLMP. For this purpose, measuring stations are operated at five specified sites in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea (Lister Tief, Meldorfer Bucht, Rochelsteert, Westerland and Elbe river). The monitoring stations are equipped with click detectors (Cetacean-Porpoise Detectors, C-PODs), which record the echolocation activity of harbour porpoises. The C-PODs are maintained and data downloaded on a regular basis. The data obtained are evaluated for optimising the acoustic monitoring as well as necessary extensions for a permanent operation of the measuring stations.

Results:

For over eleven years, porpoises have been regularly detected at all five measuring stations in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea, with significant spatial and seasonal differences in detection rates. The highest detection rates were recorded at the Westerland, Meldorfer Bucht, and Elbe river stations, while Lister Tief consistently showed the lowest values. All stations showed a seasonal maximum in spring, with the Rochelsteert and Außenelbe stations showing a pronounced maximum in autumn. This maximum coincides with the mating season and indicates that these regions are used more intensively during the reproductive phase. In the Elbe estuary, the low detections in spring suggest that porpoises follow their prey fish into the rivers and reoccur in the estuary in autumn. In addition to the seasonal patterns, there were also slight area-dependent patterns related to tides and time of day. The long-term data confirms the importance of the Wadden Sea as a key habitat for porpoises and enables robust trend analyses, which necessitate continued monitoring.

Funding: VolkswagenStiftung, 119.800 EUR

Project Details:
Tagging wild animals is important to investigate their behaviour and habitat use. The project "Realising a game changer in tagging wild animals; stress-free instrumentation" is part of the funding initiative ‚Experiment‘ of the Volkswagen Foundation. Its goal is to achieve a less stressful tagging experience for wild animals. To this end, so-called self-affixing smart tags are under development. For this, animals do not need to be caught and immobilized, but they can nevertheless be equipped with new hi-tech devices that inform researchers about their habits. Smart tags are undergoing testing in, and customisation for, several different species. The goal is to reduce any stress experienced by animals while being outfitted with transmitters to make this process more animal-friendly. Another advantage is that data recorded after tagging are immediately usable, rather than researchers having to discard initial data because the animal is behaving aberrantly following capture. Indeed, after attaching the types of transmitters used to date, animals usually display abnormal behaviour, which can lead to considerable deviations in measured data and even to the tagged animal leaving its usual habitat. Animal tagging is employed in many research projects worldwide. The collected data provide information about how animals live, their use of space, energy expenditure, behaviour, and even emotional states. Thus, they provide important information for protection and management. Indeed, such is the power of the approach that it has progressed to a distinct discipline called biologging.

Results:

Why catch when you can throw? A framework for tagging animals without capture or restraint

https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250139

Cooperation Partners:

Prof. Dr. Rory Wilson, Biosciences, College of Science, Swansea University (SU), Swansea, UK

Funding: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie, 220.000 EUR

Project Details:
Wildlife repellents are used to keep wildlife, especially ungulates, away from roads and agricultural and forestry crops. The construction of fences is currently the most effective, but also the most complex method. However, these fences cannot and should not be installed comprehensively. For this reason, optical, acoustic or olfactory repellents are commonly
used. While the efficacy of optical and acoustic devices to prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions and wildlife damage has now been refuted, the influence of olfactory repellents has not yet been sufficiently investigated. Since, in addition to the potential efficacy, the enormous amount of work and costs involved in the application also counteracts effective use, a novel wildlife steering system based on combined olfactory repellent depots for semi-automated application by vehicles is to be developed to solve this problem. These repellents can be combined and adapted according to the animal species in focus.
A special carrier paper is impregnated with the respective olfactory repellents and pressed with an aerodynamically optimized carrier for optimal flight characteristics for automated application. In this way, a targeted and cost-effective distribution of combined olfactory repellents should be possible and a virtual scent fence with increased duration of efficacy could be created.

Funding: Bundesamt für Naturschutz, 478.092 EUR

Project Details:
The species group of marine mammals represents a relevant ecosystem component in German marine waters. According to the latest assessment of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC, MSFD), marine mammals in the North Sea and Baltic Sea have not achieved good conservation status. Good data bases as well as scientifically robust approaches to assessing status are needed to adopt measures that will subsequently lead to good conservation status for the respective populations of marine mammal species. To ensure that these data are as comprehensive, comparable, and area-wide as possible, regional coordination of monitoring and indicators used for assessment is essential. Because marine mammals are highly mobile species, it is also imperative from a scientific perspective to coordinate and review the implementation of indicators and the effectiveness of monitoring at the international level. In addition, the development of the indicators is an important tool for future research concepts in the monitoring field and requires the results, scientific analyses and approaches to the design of the indicators to be brought into the international process.
The goal of this project is to further develop data-based, regionally accepted indicators for assessing the status of marine mammals in the North and Baltic Seas and to bring them to national and regional agreement. Different approaches to assess the status of biodiversity under the MSFD will be developed, refined and harmonized at international, regional and national levels. They are used nationally as well as regionally and internationally in marine conservation conventions (relevant for Germany: Oslo-Paris Commission (OSPAR) and Helsinki Commission (HELCOM)) by numerous bodies and working groups (e.g. under the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)). The cooperation regarding the MSFD and partially the Council Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora will be organised within the framework of BLANO in Germany.
Scientists at the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo) Foundation have in the past developed or implemented national and international research projects as well as monitoring concepts with a focus on marine mammals, so that long-standing data series, expert knowledge and basic principles for the design of indicators are available and can be incorporated into the process. A continuous cooperation is necessary in the various working groups, in order to guarantee a sufficient incorporation of German research results and indicator concepts on international level. This is enabled within the framework of this project.

Results:

Authier, M., Gilles, A., 2025. Integration of indicator outcomes for assessing good environmental status: a model-based approach. Ecological informatics 92

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2025.103502

Cooperation Partners:

Dr. vet. med. Paulo Dorneles

Funding: Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, 45.000 EUR

Project Details:
The aim of the project is to build up and consolidate our project consortium, to prepare the project application and to ensure a joint application in due time in this EU funding program. The composition of a convincing project consortium with the involvement of many different European countries is quite important. We aim to coordinate for the project as well as to cover important research areas. The deliverables also include contributing to a better overall societal and public understanding of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning through education and training (school and marine science, art and citizen science platforms). Therefore, we would like to specifically work with a professional media partner to create a good outreach concept. The proposed project should enable us to ensure the preparation of the proposal with the project partners, to write the proposal with experienced scientists in the field of biodiversity, ecology and health and to submit it on time with the support of an external professional EU project proposal office

Results:

In the project, the preparation of the application was ensured with the project partners. With experienced scientists from the fields of biodiversity, ecology and health and with the support of an external professional office for EU project the application was submitted on time.

Funding: Ministerium für Energiewende, Landwirtschaft, Umwelt, Natur und Digitalisierung, 199.000 EUR

Project Details:
The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) population is still recolonizing large areas of Germany and nowadays inhabits almost all parts of the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein (SH). In the context of rising otter numbers, various conflicts appear on the agenda, such as road traffic as the main cause of death of otters, contamination of water bodies or the interface between fisheries and otter protection. Otters found dead can play a valuable role to answer various scientific questions, as many aspects of the ecology and behavior of this strictly protected and highly elusive species still remain cryptic. Within the first two successful years of a pilot study starting in 2019, a wide network of collaborators was established, who strategically collect all otters found dead in SH and hand them over to ITAW for examination. Over 90 otters from the years 2015-20 (some were stored from previous years) have already been examined. During the standardized post mortem examinations the age and sex of all animals, as well as the nutritional status, are determined and all abnormalities are recorded. Further, a whole spectrum of diagnostics is undertaken, including: histology, bacteriology, virology, parasitology, population genetics, dietary analysis, reproduction analysis and to some extent contaminant analysis. This allows an extensive insight into the current population health status of Eurasian otters. All findings together build a solid base for species protection measures, management decisions and conflicts of interests. The continuation of the project for initially two years is an important step to guarantee a long term data collection and to assess possible population trends of the otter population.

Results:

Regnery, J.; Rohner, S.; Bachtin, J.; Möhlenkamp, C.; Zinke, O.; Jacob, S.; Wohlsein, P.; Siebert, U.; Reifferscheid, G.; Friesen, A. First Evidence of Widespread Anticoagulant Rodenticide Exposure of the Eurasian Otter (Lutra Lutra) in Germany. Sci. Total Environ. 2024, 907.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167938

Funding: Landwirtschaftskammer Niedersachsen, 38.933 EUR

Project Details:
Eine Unkrautbekämpfung durch Beweidung mit Schafen ist eine interessante Perspektive für den ökologischen und konventionellen Ackerbau. Doch dürfte der Einsatz herbivorer Profis auf Äckern von den landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben äußerst skeptisch betrachtet werden. Zu groß erscheint das Risiko, die Schafe könnten mehr schaden als nützen und die Kulturen anstelle der Unkräuter fressen. Tierschutzrechtliche Bedenken könnten entstehen bei der Vorstellung, dass zu den Unkräutern auf Äckern potentielle Giftpflanzen wie Stechapfel (Datura) und Greiskraut (Senecio) zählen. Nicht zuletzt wird man den Aufwand der Zäunung und der Betreuung fürchten. Alle diese Befürchtungen stehen einer Umsetzung einer Unkrautbekämpfung mit Schafen entgegen. Das wollten wir nicht ungeprüft akzeptieren. Mit unserer Machbarkeitsstudie sollen drei Variablen getestet werden: (1) Beweidungszeit und (2) Auftriebszeit sowie (3) Besatzdichte soll festgestellt werden, wann Maispflanzen ein attraktives Futter bilden. Außerdem kann durch unterschiedliche Dauer der Beweidung geprüft werden, wieviel Unkraut bereits auf der Fläche wachsen muss, um die Tiere ausreichend zu sättigen und von den Maispflanzen abzulenken. Über die verschiedenen Besatzdichten lässt sich die Selektivität der Tiere begrenzen, um sie zu motivieren, Unkraut statt Mais zu äsen. In jedem Fall soll Heu angeboten werden, damit sich die Tiere nicht unbemerkt zwangsweise von Unkraut ernähren müssen.

Funding: Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung, 451.471 EUR

Project Details:
Structuring through light - a solution for animal welfare in turkey farming

Cooperation Partners:

Landwirte aus Sachsen-Anhalt und Thüringen