Heiligenblut: Austria’s Gold Standard for Modern Alpine Wildlife Management

Alpine ibex have become one of the defining symbols of the High Tauern National Park.

For anyone hoping to see wild Alpine ibex in Austria, few places compare to the rugged peaks surrounding Grossglockner, the country’s highest mountain. Here, one of Austria’s most important ibex populations thrives among towering cliffs and alpine meadows.

But while hikers and wildlife photographers admire these majestic animals from afar, hunters, wildlife biologists, and ibex wardens carry a year-round responsibility. The future of the “King of the Alps” is not determined during a handful of hunting days each season—it depends on continuous monitoring, scientific research, and an extraordinary level of cooperation that extends far beyond individual hunting districts and even state borders.

Markus Lackner serves as Ibex Coordinator for the Carinthian Hunters Association and Managing Director of the Grossglockner-Heiligenblut Ibex Management Association.

The Grossglockner-Heiligenblut Ibex Management Association has earned a reputation as one of Austria’s premier models for sustainable wildlife management. “In Carinthia, Alpine ibex are protected year-round—and we intend to keep it that way,” explains Markus Lackner, who also serves as district game manager and ibex specialist for the Carinthian Hunters Association, in an interview with Schuss & Stille.

There is no regular hunting season for ibex in Carinthia. Instead, every two years the Carinthian Hunters Association applies for special permits from the provincial government, allowing only highly regulated population management measures.

“This isn’t about trophies,” Lackner emphasizes. “Our goal is to prevent diseases—especially sarcoptic mange—while maintaining a healthy population structure and balanced age distribution.”

When Mange Changed Everything

The importance of this management strategy became painfully clear after the devastating mange outbreak that began in 2015. The disease ignored political boundaries, spreading from Salzburg into Carinthia, across to Tyrol, and back again. Because ibex regularly move between these regions, coordinated management became essential.

On the Carinthian side alone, wildlife officials documented 67 ibex confirmed or presumed to have died from mange. The true number was almost certainly much higher.

“Many animals disappear in extremely rugged terrain,” Lackner says. “We’ll never know the actual number.”

Three Volunteer Wardens Watch the Mountains All Year

To make scientifically sound management decisions, wildlife monitoring never stops in Heiligenblut. Three volunteer ibex wardens spend much of the year in the mountains, documenting herd movements, observing individual animals, and collecting detailed information on population structure, health, and seasonal migration.

Together they complete roughly 340 field surveys every year within the Grossglockner-Heiligenblut management area alone. Their work is supported by wildlife biologists, scientific studies, and regular population counts. Only these combined data provide the basis for any request to remove individual animals under exceptional permits.

For Lackner, this cooperative approach is the system’s greatest strength.

“It can’t be that someone spots an ibex once and simply decides to harvest it.”

Instead, every decision combines observations from wildlife wardens, scientific research, telemetry data, and population surveys.

GPS Tracking Reveals Enormous Home Ranges

Male Alpine ibex have repeatedly been fitted with GPS tracking collars to help researchers better understand their movements, habitat use, and behavior throughout the High Tauern Mountains.

Wildlife researchers have repeatedly fitted ibex with GPS collars to better understand how they use the High Tauern landscape.

One monitored male demonstrated just how extensive these movements can be.

His documented home range covered approximately 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres)—clear evidence that ibex pay little attention to hunting boundaries.

For that reason, Lackner says, successful management is only possible through cooperation among neighboring hunting areas.

After years of losses caused by mange, encouraging signs are finally emerging. During the spring census on June 13, 2026, wildlife managers confirmed 25 newborn ibex kids, an important milestone for the recovering population. “Now we don’t want to slow that recovery again,” Lackner explains.

Over the coming years, management will focus on protecting mature and older males in order to rebuild a more natural age structure. If population control becomes necessary, it will primarily involve old, non-lactating females or selected young animals.

One rule, however, remains absolute. “A female raising a kid is never harvested here.”

An ibex herd high above the Grossglockner High Alpine Road near Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe.

Science Continues to Uncover New Challenges

Population counts are only one part of the work. Whenever a diseased animal is confirmed, wildlife managers collect organ, skin, and tissue samples for laboratory analysis.

Researchers are studying far more than mange alone. Recent investigations have identified parasites such as the red stomach worm as well as surprisingly high numbers of animals carrying lungworm larvae.

The latest cross-border research produced striking results. In 2025, scientists analyzed samples from 15 ibex and 99 chamois. Approximately 57 percent of the ibex examined carried mange mites, while nearly 40 percent of the chamois tested positive.

Although mites alone do not automatically trigger clinical mange, parasite infestations significantly weaken animals and can greatly increase the severity of disease outbreaks.

Why Lead-Free Ammunition Became Standard

The management association also changed its ammunition policy years ago.

The decision followed the poisoning of the reintroduced bearded vulture “Glocknerlady,” which suffered lead poisoning after consuming tiny lead fragments left in the remains of harvested game.

Since then, all regulated management harvests have been conducted exclusively with lead-free ammunition. “Terminal performance is excellent,” Lackner says. “For us, switching to lead-free bullets was absolutely the right decision.”

He personally has relied on the Barnes LRX bullet for 25 years.

Real Mountain Hunting, Not High-Tech Hunting

Despite rapid advances in hunting technology, the Grossglockner-Heiligenblut team intentionally keeps things traditional. Thermal imaging plays only a minor role in ibex management.

“We know our animals and we know where they live,” Lackner explains. “The most important tools are still quality binoculars and careful observation.”

For him, that philosophy defines authentic alpine hunting.

Anyone who wants to manage—or hunt—ibex successfully must bring physical fitness, patience, and a genuine passion for the mountains.

A Blueprint for the Future?

According to Lackner, the real success story isn’t hunting at all. It’s cooperation.

Management associations make coordinated population counts, joint decision-making, and seamless wildlife monitoring possible across multiple hunting areas.

For wide-ranging mountain species like Alpine ibex, he believes this collaborative approach represents the future. “The more intensively you study a wildlife species, the more you continue to learn. In the end, that knowledge provides the greatest benefit to the animals themselves,” says the veteran hunter.

Around Grossglockner, that philosophy has become reality. Here, modern wildlife conservation and responsible hunting are no longer opposing ideas—they work hand in hand. That is precisely why the Grossglockner-Heiligenblut Ibex Management Association is widely regarded as one of the Alpine region’s leading examples of sustainable wildlife management.