DIGITALNA ARHIVA ŠUMARSKOG LISTA
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ŠUMARSKI LIST 5-6/2021 str. 70     <-- 70 -->        PDF

of adults (>50%). Across all red deer mortalities in the Hungary–Croatia border fence, the sex ratio was in favour of males (21) over females (17). In the case of roe deer, seven male and 16 female mortalities were recorded (Table 1).
DISCUSSION
RASPRAVA
Overall ungulate mortality rate due to the Hungary–Croatia border fence (0.20 mortalities/km of fence per year) was 1.4-folds higher in a relative comparison (i.e., corrected for a time interval and the length of fences) with previously reported figures for Slovenia–Croatia border, where mortality of 0.12 ungulates per km of fence was registered in the 10-month period along 178 km of the border fence (Pokorny et al., 2017), corresponding to annual mortality of 0.14 individuals/km of fence. In the first 10 months after the construction, i.e. when the reported fence-related mortality at the Hungary–Croatia border was the highest (reaching 0.36 individuals/km of fence; see Fig. 2), ungulate mortality was even three-folds higher than at the Slovenia–Croatia border. Higher ungulate mortality rate in razor-wired fences along Hungary–Croatia border comparing to Slovenia–Croatia one corresponds well with the known extensive distribution and high abundances of red deer, roe deer, and wild boar in the entire transboundary area between Hungary and Croatia (Csányi and Lehoczki, 2010). However, also some other factors affecting spatial behaviour, i.e. increasing mobility of ungulates (particularly red deer) in this area, such as predominant plain open landscape, vicinity of several dispersed settlements, and frequent usage of dogs in drive hunts in the Hungary–Croatia transboundary zone could increase the fence-related mortality rate of ungulates in the study area. But it should be mentioned that our figures are comparable with other reported data on fence-related mortality, i.e. along roads in Colorado and Utah, USA, where average annual mortality of ungulates was estimated at 0.25 individuals/km of fence (Harrington and Conover, 2006).