Heck cattle in nature conservation projects - current experiences.

Since the middle 1990-s Heck cattle and Konik are increasingly used in nature conservation projects in Germany. What kind of animal welfare problems can appear in year-round grazing with Heck cattle is shown by practical experiences in a nature development project in Lower Saxony in East Friesland. After a rainy winter in spring 2008 cumulative deaths occur accompanied by severe protests from the people living around. The reasons are explained and the emergency measures which were taken by the local veterinary offices to eliminate the animal welfare problems are described. This example shows, that efforts of nature conservation, to left domestic animals in grazing projects largely on there own resources, encounter difficulties as soon as the dimension and the quality/condition of an area is not suitable, to achieve all the keeping requirements of the used species for the hole year.