Styrian Sölktäler -

Styrian Sölktäler

22.01.2025 06:30

Stefan Wallner (University of Vienna) and Gabriele Trinker (Managing Director of the Sölktäler Nature Park) regularly measure light pollution in the region.(Bild: Juergen Fuchs)

Von Fanny Gasser

Astronomer Stefan Wallner is convinced that the global problem of light pollution is massively underestimated. Together with Gabriele Trinker, Managing Director of the Sölktäler Nature Park, he wants to preserve one of the darkest spots in Europe. The "Krone" visited the two of them in the Enns Valley.

There is the fox, whose eye is trained on darkness. Or the firefly, which goes in search of a mate at night. Another well-known species is the bat with its echolocation, whose prey flight becomes a challenge due to artificial light. They are all representative of the 69 percent of mammals on our planet that are nocturnal. And they are representative of the threat posed to animals by light smog.