Visitor management and wildlife trapping in the Danube floodplain Wachau

The “LIFE+ Wilderness Wachau” project focused on the establishment of a nature reserve of Danube floodplain at Rossatz (Wachau, Austria). Project restoration measures led to create a third inflow area by lowering the riverbank to mean water level, to close walking paths and to terminate land lease agreements in the area of island Pritzenau. In our study, we used wildlife camera trapping to monitor both, the number of visitors and of wildlife on the island before and after completion of the restoration measures of revitalization. Our survey shows that with the establishment of the nature reserve the number of visitors was lowered to a half only than before at the protected island area. In addition to this lowered visitor pressure, leisure activities by people moved to the edge of the island. Further, a new attractive "hotspot" for local recreation has emerged on the new Schopperstatt side branch, located nearby but away from the nature reserve island. This visitor management has had a significant impact on wildlife activity. After floodplain restoration measures had been implemented, wildlife activity was almost 4 times higher in the nature reserve than before. Not only more captures of animal individuals (pre-revitalization monitoring: 222; post-revitalization monitoring: 833 per year) but also more mammalian species could be observed. The three most common, camera captured mammals over the whole observation period (pre-monitoring: Oct. 2018 – Oct.2019, post-monitoring: May 2021 – April 2022) were deer, fox and badger. Tracking the inverse related wildlife activities and visitor pressure on the one side, and the relocation of recreational hotspot use apart the nature conservation island on the other, is discussed to supplement information about successful river restoration management in protected Danube floodplain Wachau.