Vienna (OTS) – Since Tuesday, July 9th, 2024, local natural jewels have been the focus of the “Universum” summer program: The next impressive nature documentary made in Austria is on Tuesday, July 16th, at 8:15 p.m. on ORF 2 and on ORF ON Rita and Michael Schlamberger’s film “Back to the Primeval Forest – Kalkalpen National Park”, which portrays the largest rewilding area in the Alps. Over a period of more than three years, the nature film duo captured the secret of the untouched jungle in the Limestone Alps. The film was created as a co-production between ScienceVision and Kalkalpen National Park in collaboration with ORF, the Austrian Federal Forests, with support from the Ministry for an Austria Worth Living, the State of Upper Austria and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
In the huge, untouched area where humans let nature be nature, trees communicate with each other, lynxes roam majestically on the forest floor and yellow-necked mice jump ten times as far as they are long. Not so long ago, the Limestone Alps had a completely different appearance. It was only in 1997 that the Sengsen Mountains and the Reichraminger Hintergebirge were placed under strict protection as the Kalkalpen National Park. At the same time with a courageous decision: From now on, the management of the forest should be left to the natural dynamic processes. At the time, quite a few experts warned against this step and feared that the forest would decompose. Today it is clear that all doubts were unfounded. The clearest symbol of this is the return of the lynx. After a harbinger of future success came to the national park in 1998, lynxes from Switzerland were reintroduced in 2011. Only a year later there was the first offspring. The only enemy that the first lynx population in the Alps has since their extinction 115 years ago is humans. Because he often sees the lynx as a trophy.
Ultimately, the most powerful symbol of the Limestone Alps is the tree. For more than 350 million years, trees have developed into perfectly adapted living beings, into plant geniuses that form the forest organism in a highly complex network. Trees are part of what is probably the greatest community effort in the history of life. Myriads of fungi decompose and process the dead wood. Hidden underground, they lead a dark existence. And they make their way to the surface. There they energetically put up their umbrellas. What we commonly refer to as a fungus only serves to multiply. In autumn, when the fungi push to the surface, they indirectly reveal where they grow and spread underground. The mushrooms’ extensive mycelial strands cover enormously large areas. They form a huge underground network, spreading in dead trees and the ground. And as has already been proven in the USA, they reach a weight of more than 600 tons.
Trees also communicate with each other. This is how spruce trees warn neighboring spruce trees of possible bark beetle attacks. In this case, the infected trees release scents. The alarmed spruces in the immediate area turn on their “internal chemical factory”. They then extract various substances from the soil, which prepare them for an expected attack by the bark beetles. “Trees communicate with special codes,” says filmmaker Rita Schlamberger. “Their words are scents and vibrations.” The jungle in the Limestone Alps is not only monstrous and huge – it is also small and, at first glance, inconspicuous. The yellow-necked mouse fascinates with its breathtaking jumping and climbing technique. This forest mouse climbs vertically up trees without any problems – and jumps ten times as far as it is long. The abilities of the parasitic wasp are no less astonishing. She transports her egg precisely under the bark of the tree. There the egg is laid directly on the larva of the giant wood wasp, which has recently been paralyzed with a poison. Now the egg of the parasitic wasp can happily feed on the immobile larva of the giant wood wasp.
Life under the bark is shown with the help of computer animations, and time-lapse, slow-motion and high-speed recordings ensure that the jungle in the Kalkalpen National Park with all its components can be brought into the picture. “Often it was only when we analyzed the images that we were able to see all the details that this forest had to offer,” emphasizes filmmaker Michael Schlamberger. “This allowed us to record how skillfully and purposefully the white-backed woodpecker, for example, gets to the larvae that live deep in the trunk.”