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ŠUMARSKI LIST 9-10/2022 str. 71     <-- 71 -->        PDF

acclimatization enclosure in relation to the characteristics of the neighboring forests including state forests (managed by state forest company - approx. 7,550 ha and Tara National Park - approx. 4,180 ha) and Church forests (approx. 360 ha). Areas under high forests range from 40.2 to 97.8%, while non-overgrown areas are rare, mostly barren land (range 0.3-18.1%). The main tree species are common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), sessile oak (Quercus petraea /Matt./ Liebl.), Austrian pine (Pinus nigra J. F. Arnold), Norway spruce (Picea abies /L./ H. Karst), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) and European white birch (Betula pendula Roth.). Numerous rivers (Đetinja, Bratešina, Kamišina and Rača), as well as numerous streams that have water throughout the year pass through the area, so the hydrographic characteristics are favourable. It is estimated that the current state of the road network in these forest management units does not cause serious habitat fragmentation.
The vegetation period in the research area begins in mid-April and ends in late October. The average annual rainfall is about 1040 mm. A significant part of the annual precipitation is in the form of snow. The first snow appears in September, and the last one in April, sometimes even later. The season with the highest recorded precipitation is summer, followed by autumn, spring and winter. The main directions of wind blowing are northeast and southwest. For further information on the research area and acclimatisation enclosure, see Gačić et al. (2018, 2020).
Methodology – Metodologija
Our study is based on a newly established population of 74 red deer released in the Mt. Tara area during 2019 (n = 22), 2020 (n = 32) and 2021 (n = 20), from five localities: 1. Dubašnica, 2. Fruška gora National park, 3. Bukovik, 4. Plavna and 5. Kozara (Fig 1.). The data on the number and structure (sex and age) of released red deer were collected from the records of the Forest Directorate (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management) and PE “Vojvodinašume”. Animals were from enclosures.
During the first year of red deer reintroduction, six females were translocated from eastern Serbia, a fenced part called Dubašnica within the hunting ground Zlotske šume - Crni vrh, three of which died during transport on March 17, 2019, and one after a few days, most likely due to the stress of capture and long transport. A month later, 17 individuals were translocated from Vojvodina (4 males, 7 females and 6 calves), which originate from Hungary but were temporarily kept in quarantine at the Ravne location within the hunting ground of Fruška Gora National Park.
During the second year (January 28, 2020), four females were translocated from a fenced area called Košuta inside the Bukovik hunting ground in southern Serbia, one of which died a few days after arrival. Then, six males from Vojvodina, originating from the Plavna hunting ground (February 15), as well as 18 individuals (2 males, 7 females and 9 calves) from Fruška gora National Park (March 23) were also translocated.
During the third year, six males were translocated from the hunting ground Plavna (February 10, 2021), one of which died a few days after arrival. A month after that, four females and two calves were translocated from the hunting ground Plavna (March 27) and one male, seven females and one calf from the famous hunting ground Kozara in Vojvodina (March 29).
Upon arrival, red deer were placed in an acclimatisation enclosure at Jezerine, a location 14.4 km away from the main road Užice - Višegrad, which also had the role of a temporary holding quarantine. The plan was to hold the red deer in the acclimatisation enclosure for several months to allow them to recover from the trip and to acclimatize to their new habitat, and release them into the selected favourable area (150 km2) during three consecutive years between July 20 and August 15, depending on weather conditions and calf development. However, the length of the holding period varied due to an unplanned release in 2021 resulting from a damage to the fence caused by brown bear – Ursus arctos L. (from February 10 to the beginning of May) until the planned release after calving in 2019 (April 17 to July 29) and 2020 (January 28 to June 25). In both cases, the holding period lasted for several months, which is a technique defined by some authors as soft release (Rosatte et al., 2007; Ryckman et al., 2010). During captivity, as well as after release, red deer were provided with hay, maize and rock salt.
The reintroduced red deer were monitored in a way that does not interfere with its normal activities and does not lead to domestication. We used quality equipment for day and night observation (Swarovski SLC 10 × 42, Pulsar CORE FXQ 50, camera traps Ltl Acorn, Spromise and Seissiger), while five individuals (4♀ + 1♂) were equipped with GPS collars (Lotek LifeCycle 500 Pro Collar) during disease-testing protocol in quarantine of origin (Ravne - Fruška gora National Park) in April 2019. These individuals were then loaded into a livestock trailer and transported to the acclimatisation enclosure in the area of Tara.
Other participants in the monitoring were employees of local hunting association (“Aleksa Dejović”, Užice) and Tara National Park (Bajina Bašta), who used camera traps and personally collected records of red deer in the field, or collected records from the local people. All records from the Đetinja hunting ground were without data on geographical coordinates, so they were not included in the statistical analysis. We had a total of 27 complete records, of which 26 were from the Tara National Park hunting ground and