The campaign to protect marmots and mountain chamois in the Tatra Mountains was started by two Poles: Maksymilian Nowicki and Father Eugeniusz Janota. Their lobbying led to the passing of a pioneering animal protection law.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Tatras, a range of Carpathian Mountains in Europe, aroused growing interest of tourists but also nature lovers.

Zoologist Maksymilian Nowicki and Catholic priest Eugeniusz Janota (Krakow Scientific Society) noticed that local people often illegally hunted marmots for their fat.  Mountain chamois also became the prey of poachers – they were killed for the meat, which was highly prized by the highest levels of society.

This situation threatened to exterminate these animal species.  To prevent this situation, Nowicki and Fr Janota began to lobby for their protection among local officials and the central authorities, which at the time were in Vienna, as this part of Poland had been annexed to Austria (later Austro-Hungary) as a result of the partitions at the end of the 18th century. The Polish state did not regain its independence until 1918.

How did they convince the authorities to protect the animals?

An awareness-raising campaign about the threat of extinction of marmots and mountain chamois in the Tatra Mountains was carried out among local residents by Father Eugeniusz Janota. He knew that the people were very religious. The message he addressed to them was therefore based on religious arguments and biblical quotations. The brochure was distributed through the local secular and Catholic authorities. It was read to the believers at Sunday masses. Soon, Fr Janota’s and Nowicki’s arguments became very popular among all strata of society.

Their actions led to the passing of a law by the Galician Land Sejm (5 October 1868) prohibiting the hunting of marmots and mountain chamois. A year later, the law was confirmed by Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph.

This was the first law in the world concerning the protection of specific animal species. Previously, similar laws had been established in other parts of the world. However, they were mainly aimed at stopping the cruel treatment of animals.