For several years now, the first reports of active, even flying stag beetle males have been coming from Franconia as early as 20 April. Usually very large, proud beetles that want to conquer the world. This year, these reports seem to be coming from all directions, including Trier. In between these reports, there are repeated cold snaps and suddenly the first dead males appear, without any injuries, simply dead. Of course, climate change is also affecting the stag beetles developing deeper in the earth. You think you might be missing something down there. The females of the stag beetles usually [...]

The stag beetle friends Nature two e.V. together with their cooperation partners are pleased about the very good bachelor thesis of Ms. Mona Range from Erlangen. Ms. Range took a closer look at our Citizen Science (CS) project "www.hirschkaefer-suche.de" as part of her bachelor's thesis at the Weihenstephan - Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences. We ourselves have already written, published and criticized a lot, and suddenly we are being taken to task ourselves. That was a new feeling for us too, especially for me. We are proud of her findings, which she has skillfully derived from our data pool and [...]

 Our team is now waiting for stag beetle season. The already finished 24 beetles are currently still waiting in their earthen shells, approx. 30 cm below the earth's surface, for a signal to make the laborious climb to the surface. This signal is triggered on the one hand by an internal clock and on the other hand by the ambient temperature and usually reaches males earlier than females. Maybe it just depends on the depth of burrowing, because females build their earthen shells about 5 - 6 cm deeper than males. It will be a good four weeks before the [...]