Wild Vienna: Boar, Deer and the Danube Floodplain

The natural side of Vienna, from the wild boar, deer and woodpeckers of the walled Lainzer Tiergarten to the floodplain forests of the Donau-Auen National Park in the Lobau and the water birds of the Danube Island and the Alte Donau, with a directory of the parks in our guide.

Vienna is a city of palaces with a wilderness at either end. To the west, the Vienna Woods run into the city and the walled Lainzer Tiergarten keeps wild boar and deer within the city limits; to the east, the Danube's floodplain forest in the Lobau is part of a national park.

This is a short, honest guide to the places where Vienna's wildlife is easiest to meet. Most of them are reached by tram, bus or U-Bahn; bring good shoes and binoculars, and go early in the day.

Vienna keeps a walled forest of wild boar within its city limits.

The Lainzer Tiergarten

In the west of the city, the Lainzer Tiergarten covers 2,450 hectares of forest and meadow inside a wall of about 22 kilometres. It has been a nature reserve since 1941, and entry is free. Wild boar live here in family groups, and roe deer and brown hares graze the meadows; the park's own pages count more than 90 species of bird, from birds of prey to the rare white-backed woodpecker and the black woodpecker, and 18 species of bat were recorded here in 2014.

In the old trees and dead wood live stag beetles and longhorn beetles, and fire salamanders and yellow-bellied toads breed in the ponds and ditches. Keep your distance from the boar, especially in spring, when the sows defend their young fiercely.

The Danube and its floodplain

East of the city, the Donau-Auen National Park, protected since 1996, covers more than 9,600 hectares of what its authority calls the last great floodplain landscape in Central Europe, and its Vienna end is the Lobau, with its own National Park House, wien-lobAU. Boardwalks and paths lead through the meadows and backwaters.

Closer in, the long Danube Island and the Alte Donau, a former arm of the river, are places for a swim, a walk along the water and an eye on its birds.

Feature: an imperial hunting ground

The Lainzer Tiergarten was a hunting ground of the imperial court for centuries; records of an animal and boar park here go back to 1457. Under Emperor Joseph II, between 1782 and 1787, it was enclosed by the wall that still surrounds it, and in the 1880s the Hermesvilla was built inside it. Today the walled forest is part of the Vienna Woods Biosphere Reserve.

Did you know? The mason who built the Lainzer Tiergarten's wall, Philipp Schlucker, asked so low a price that the Viennese feared he would be ruined; he wasn't, but German still calls a poor fellow an “armer Schlucker”.

Our advice

Our advice: the Lainzer Tiergarten opens daily, all year, from 8am, closing at 5pm or 4.30pm in winter (check the times on its website), and follow its visitor rules. Keep well away from wild boar, never feed any wild animal, and never touch young hares. For the Lobau, start at the wien-lobAU National Park House.