Theriologia Ukrainica (Dec 2023)
Dzharylhach Island (Ukraine): results of game management research in 1991–2022
Abstract
Monitoring faunal observations and surveys in the State Enterprise ‘Skadovsk Experimental Forestry and Hunting Enterprise’ have been carried out on both the mainland and island (Dzharylhach Island) parts during annual expeditions since 1991, including since 2009 in cooperation with the Dzharylhach National Nature Park. One of the goals of these studies was to improve survey methods. The last (pre-war) planned wildlife survey on Dzharylgach Island was carried out on 1 February 2022, just before the war. The island resembles a narrow sandy spit with a total area of 5.5 thousand hectares, which extends 42 km east of the mainland into the Black Sea. Its territory is covered with dense cereal and sedge grass, and much less often with shrubs (mainly olive). It is the widest island (up to 4 km) in the area of Hlyboka Bay. The current level of hunting intensity on the island, especially in recent years, is low. The main reason for this is the traditional change in the use of the land after the creation of a national park in the territory of the experimental hunting grounds in 2009. At the same time, given the importance of the economic and conservation status of the national park, it is necessary to fundamentally address the issue of increasing the productivity of the common territory by users of the provided lands, based on the long-term positive examples of the work of national parks in the vast majority of countries. The main objects of monitoring are the red deer (Cervus elaphus), the fallow deer (Dama dama) and the mouflon (Ovis gmelini). Over the 32-year period of observation, the number of deer on the island has almost halved, from 385 to 194 individuals. However, this is about 2% of the country’s deer population and 111 times higher than the average density. The situation is further complicated by the imbalanced age and sex structure of the herd. In recent years, the number of adult male deer has decreased from 32.9 to 9.9% due to unsystematic hunting in previous years and limited population regulation in recent years. The situation is similar for the island’s fallow deer population, and especially for mouflon. Thus, the search for realistic ways to regulate the quantitative and qualitative state of wild ungulates populations is the basis of faunal research on the island.
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