Monitoring of reintroduced red deer in the area of Tara (Western Serbia): incidence of bark stripping within an acclimatisation enclosure and postrelease movements

Abstract

The modern approach in the development of programs for the reintroduction of red deer was applied for the first time in Serbia. We compared the most important planned and implemented activities in the period 2018-2021, and assessed the results achieved in the Mt. Tara area. The plan was to hold the red deer (5♂ + 15♀) in the acclimatisation enclosure for several months and release them into the selected favourable area (150 km2) during three consecutive years. Bark stripping occurred mainly on thinner common hazel stems of coppice origin (≤ 9.9 cm). Total mortality among the 72 red deer that were transported to the acclimatisation enclosure was 8.3%. The longest movement of a 4-year-old female (held for 15 weeks) was 24 km. During the study period, no bark stripping was observed outside the acclimatization enclosure, nor were any deaths of the released red deer registered. In the period 2019-2021, 74 red deer were released from the acclimatization enclosure into the Mt. Tara area, which is about 60% of the estimated capacity of the selected favourable area.