IVANJICA – The severe frosts and heavy snowfall that have hit the Ivanjica area are not helping the wild animals. However, the animals in the Čemernica Hunting Association from Ivanjica will have enough food to survive the winter, says the game warden, Aco Aleksić.
How do wild animals feed themselves and survive the winter in these conditions?
Hunters from the Ivanjica Hunting Association, together with the association's specialist staff, are actively involved in transporting sufficient quantities of food to the already established feeding grounds in the field. The work was completed in time, as meteorologists had forecast very low temperatures and snowfall. The supplementary feeding was completed during the New Year and Christmas holidays.
What quantities of food have been taken out to the field?
Currently, temperatures in the hunting grounds are extremely low, ranging from -3 to -17 degrees in the higher zones. In such conditions, the large game must have enough food. At locations with automatic feeders, a larger quantity of granular feed has been placed, primarily whole-kernel maize. Feeders for cobs of maize have also been filled in good time.
The hunting association places between 30 and 40 tonnes of food in the hunting grounds annually, regardless of the season. Areas of the hunting grounds with a higher concentration of game, particularly where wild boar are present, are fed more frequently and intensively.
Every spring, 6 to 8 hectares of oats are sown, which has proven to be the best supplementary food. These areas also help to reduce the damage that wild boar can cause.
Which species of game are currently most at risk?
In such weather conditions, all species of game are at risk, but particularly wild boar and roe deer. For roe deer, an adequate supply of salt in the hunting ground is particularly important; they will find solid food more easily. If the low temperatures and snow cover persist, baled lucerne is also prepared to be brought out to the feeding sites.
There are more than 200 feeding stations for wild boar in the hunting grounds. At present, all locations are accessible by vehicle, and where vehicles cannot reach, local people with horses come to the rescue, for which, as Aleksić emphasises, they are deeply grateful.
Aco Aleksić, manager of the Čemernica
hunting ground, Ivanjica, told 'Prvi Lovac Srbije':
