Quantifying the damage of red deer (Cervus elaphus) grazing on grassland production in southeastern Slovenia |
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Authors: | Stanislav Trdan Matej Vidrih |
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Institution: | (1) Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Agronomy, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1111 Ljubljana, Slovenia |
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Abstract: | The influence of red deer (Cervus elaphus) grazing on grassland production for forage conservation at the forest border during the vegetation period was studied on
three locations (Mala gora, Cvišlerji, and Mačkovec) in the Kočevje region (SE Slovenia). The experiment lasted from the 25th
of March until the 8th of October 2002. Portable cages were used to exclude red deer from grazing the herbage. At four sampling
dates in the season, herbage air dry matter (DM) yield was measured at three different observations (cage-protected plot,
cage-protected plot only two to three weeks before sampling date, otherwise freely grazed (removed), and unprotected plot).
The results from the experiment showed that red deer grazed on grassland through the entire season and that the regeneration
capability of sward was the highest in summer, middle in spring and smallest in autumn. On unprotected plots, an average reduction
of 50% of herbage DM yield was found with the most damaged sites also up to 80% reduction. |
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Keywords: | Sward Yield loss Forage Ungulates Wildlife management |
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