With this beautiful Easter weather, tourists and Drenths are flocking to nature. The chance of disturbing animals such as nesting birds is then great. So they are friendly and strict at Natuurmonumenten on the Dwingelderveld.
At the beginning of the afternoon, the flow of visitors starts to grow. From the visitor center in Ruinen, people walk or cycle en masse into the Dwingelderveld or take a short tour past the sheepfold, the young lambs and the watchtower.
BOA and Boswachter Rob Bleijs mentions the list of rules again. “Walk or cycle only on the paths. Don’t go off because adders or nesting birds can be close by. Look here, skylarks can nest in these clumps of grass. If you step on it or your dog sniffs it, it’s for the adult birds are already a reason to leave the nest. With all the misery for the eggs or later the chicks that will not survive. Sometimes fawns are hiding fairly close to the hiking trails. So don’t just keep your dog on a leash, but also on the path. No long leash because then a dog can still go 5.6.7 meters into nature.”
The consequences of disturbance in nature are especially great in spring and affect mating, breeding, giving birth or lactating animals. But waste that visitors leave behind in nature is also a problem, because birds, for example, use the rubbish in their nests in which chicks can become entangled. And plastic in the stomachs of animals often means death.
(story continues after the video)