The Bois des Caures was the place where the Battle of Verdun started in February 1916. In the occupied forest, the German army constructed in 1918 a number of bunkers. Remarkable is that the bunkers have animal names. The inscriptions are artistically made of white pebbles. Eight bunkers with animal names are known today: Büffel, Habicht, Hai, Krokodil, Mammut, Nashorn, Nilpferd and Walfisch.
The abbreviation "Minkdo" suggests that the builders were pioneers from a mining engineering unit (Minierungskommando or Minenkommando)
The structures are not actually bunkers in the sense that they were armed with a machine gun or cannon. They were probaly for observation or shelters to take shelter during bombardments.
Today, the animal bunkers are not easy to find and some are regularly flooded with water due to their sunken position.
