Bremen Wildlife - Go Explore! | Constructor University

Brought to you by Jacobs University’s Environmental Club

Granted, Bremen is not Serengeti National Park. Nevertheless, if you know how, when and where to look, you might spot some animals you have never seen before, depending on where you are from.

One of the advantages of our university is its location near the river Lesum. Crossing it, you can reach the countryside on its other side within minutes! Doing this in the early hours, chances are increased to see some deer. And in the “Werderland”, a marshland nature protection area, you can even spot beautiful white swans!

Ready to go on peaceful game stalking? Here comes an overview, brought to you by the Environmental Club, about what you can spot around or even on campus!

(Eurasian) Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)

Very high on the popularity range, because of their puckish, cute behaviour and look. Having a bushy tail, which they use as a steer, mean of communication and for thermoregulation, and a rusty red-brown colour with a white breast, they strike your eye, when they leave the trees to collect some nuts or acorns. But you cannot from the distance distinguish females and males.

Squirrels are excellent climbers, thanks to their sharp claws. Feeding mostly on fruits and seeds, they might also eat the occasional fledgling. During autumn this diurnal animal is very busy collecting food for a winter storage, as in that season they do not hibernate. They live in dreys or tree caverns.

Fun fact: Squirrels are among the few animals that can climb down a tree trunk head-forward.

Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)

Easily recognized by their spines (hollow hairs made of keratin), which cover the complete back of this brown or grey-brown, is this up to 32 cm long animal, which is the most abundant mammal in Germany. The spines are a protection from predators: When threatened, hedgehogs curl up so that they form a very spiky ball. Not seeing well, at least his scent is very good, helping him to find his favourite dish: Insects.

The hedgehog is usually nocturnal but gets very hungry in autumn, because he needs to produce some winter fat, therefore you may see them during day in that season. Unfortunately, you most frequently see them in a very unpleasant form: dead on the road, overrun by cars (500 000 per year in Germany). In their alive forms, their habitat are hedges (no surprise there), bushes and forests edges, and they are solitary.

Fun fact: Video gaming character Sonic is also a hedgehog.

Woodpecker

Source: NABU (Copy)

Most likely you can see a black-white-red plumed great woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), because they are most abundant here, but also green woodpeckers (Picus viridis) have been spotted on campus. Sometimes you don’t see but hear these diurnal birds, when they use their beaks to drill nest holes in trees or to break up the bark to eat underlying insects. Speaking of the nest holes: Woodpeckers are picky birds and build many of them until they are content and actually use one. The drumming sound is the most characteristic and famous thing about this bird. They are also drumming for communication, for that choosing particularly old branches which have a better resonance. The great woodpecker’s favourite dish are fruits, like cherries and strawberries; the green woodpecker prefers ants.

Fun fact: To protect their skull from the hammering shocks, they have a shock absorber between skull and beak.

Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus)

Bambi lives! The deer is the in Europe most abundant and smallest species and closer related with the moose than with the red deer (elk). Its habitat are forests, thicket and fields, where they feed on weeds, leaves, buds and herbs.. It has a very distinct scent and can smell humans from more than 300 metres distance. It gets up to 12 years old – unless prematurely eaten by a wolf, fox or lynx. If feeling danger, they jump away into the thicket. Only the roebucks has antlers, which are up to 20 centimetres high and used for fights with rivals.

They are not endangered, but there are many road kills and another problem is the dead of kids due to harvesters: The in May or June newly born kids are highly dependent and left by their mothers in high grass, while she is feeding. Even facing danger, they will never run away but are then cut in pieces by the machine. Important: Never touch a kid! Their mother will abandon it if it smells strange.

Fun fact: Their old winter fur is used by many birds for their nest construction.

Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)

Source: www.andreasholgerklein.de (Copy)

Source: LBV (Copy)

Living in the bushes and thicket of open country, this game fowl bird has its origin in middle Asia. Probably it was introduced by the Romans already. It does not like heights more than 200 metres – so Bremen is ideal!

The males have a very splendid and prominent plumage and are bigger than the plain yellow-brownish females.

Fun fact: Can be shot from October until January.

Wild goose

These migratory birds are only temporary visitors on their winter vacation. They leave Siberia in August on a 6 000 km journey to the Lower Rhine and East Frisia. You might either see and hear them flying in big swarms or see them resting and feeding on fields. There might be 8 000 geese on just one field. Basically all the time during their winter vacation they are eating to build up enough fat reserves for their journey back to Siberia.

Fun fact: If they move 10 minutes in their winter break, they need to eat 140 kg of grass to make up for the lost energy!

Grey heron (Ardea cinereal)

Fishing in lakes, rivers and even saltwater, this very long-legged and gangly bird surprisingly is nesting in trees, if available. They mostly feed on fish, frogs and newts (not Scramander), for which they might wait for hours to swim by. Suffering under water pollution and the decrease in his prey as a consequence, he can also be spotted standing on field where he hunts for mice.Grey herons are non-migratory birds so you even see them in winter, sometimes then together with the migratory silver heron, who comes here for overwintering.

Seagull

There are over 100 species of seagull in Germany. You see these grey-white large birds mostly near the water, either on the water or gliding through the air. Both sexes look the same, except that males are a bit bigger. They are very noisy birds and nasty by times, too. In touristic cities they are taking advantage of naïve tourists who either feed them or just don’t guard their belongings or food sufficiently, so that the gulls just snatch it from their hands. And they are omnivores, so they like ice cream as well as fries.

Fun fact: They can drink saltwater. They have adenoids in their head which sequester the salt via the nostrils.

Wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos)

Being the biggest swimming ducks in Europe, they are very good swimmers, can dive and fly short distances as well. You can spot them in almost every water. As common among many birds, the male duck has a very marvellous plumage, with metallic green at head and neck and white neck ring. The female is basically only brown. Ducks grease their plumage with an endocrine fat to make it water-repellent. Trying to get their food, plants and from time to time the odd snail or small fish, you might spot ducks head-down, butt-up in the water.

Fun fact: To protect her eggs from predators, the mother sprinkles them with faeces, which makes them very unappetising.

Bremen Wildlife - Go Explore!