Il Porto Cervo belongs to the order Artiodactyla, family Cervidae, large herbivorous mammals with deciduous bony horns. Is the biggest Deer present in Italy, with body length between 160 and 220 cm and a height at the withers of about 105-130 cm; the tail is 12-15 cm long. Males weigh 130-240 kg, females 90-120 kg; the variability is given by the environments frequented and by the food available. In adults of cervo the coat is tawny red in summer and gray-brown in winter, while in the young it is dark red with white spots. On the back, around the tail, a light cream colored spot is clearly evident. The males of the cervo they are larger than the females and carry powerful antlers equipped with a variable number of tops, unrelated to age; the size of the stage depends on many factors, including the quality of the power supply. The "horns", renewed annually, are lost between February and April and grow back, reaching the completion of development around the month of August. As in the others Cervidae, growth occurs with the formation of new bone covered with velvet; when fully developed, the antlers are freed from the velvet and are very light in color, which darkens over the course of the year. THE deer they are strongly territorial animals, which mark their areas through odorous traces, with the use of substances produced by glands placed around the eyes; recognizable traces of the presence of the Porto Cervo they are also signs of rubbing on the plants, rasped on the ground and made in the shape of an acorn (Prigioni et al., 2001). During the breeding season, males are particularly active in obtaining and defending possession of a herd of females within their territory. The competition between different males occurs mainly through the prolonged emission of bellowing, audible cries particularly at night and at dawn. Only in the case of high population density do actual and violent clashes between males occur, mostly when the contenders are equal in physical strength. The Porto Cervo forms seasonally variable herds. The breeding season begins in September and the females, which mature around two and a half years, usually give birth to only one young in late May-June. The puppy, in the first days of life, remains hidden in the vegetation and reached by the mother only at the moment of breastfeeding.
DEER: Habitat and distribution range
Il Porto Cervo it adapts to variable environmental conditions, snow-covered surfaces such as swampy areas; it is able to live both in the plains and in the mountains. The cervo it primarily occupies large wooded areas, both broad-leaved and coniferous, but characterized in any case by a dense undergrowth and interspersed with clearings and pastures; in late spring-summer it rises in altitude up to the limit of the arboreal vegetation, using the pastures of altitude. It needs very large territories (10-15.000 hectares). The use of the environment varies seasonally and the portions of land used in winter and summer can also be very distant from each other, forcing it to make real migrations; generally it is the sub-adult males who make large-scale movements to colonize new territories (Prigioni et al., 2001). The diet of the cervo is wider than the roe and is mainly composed of various types of herbaceous vegetation, berries and roots; in winter it feeds on buds, leaves, bark, acorns, chestnuts and mushrooms, going so far as to affect the crops of cereals, potatoes, vines or fruit trees. The cervo active mainly at night, when it searches for food, while during the day it remains hidden in the thick of the woods. The herds vary in composition according to the seasons, but the basic organization is matriarchal; in winter, up to the breeding season, i deer they gather in numerous flocks, while in summer they are reduced to groups of 1-2 females with the young of the year. Widespread throughout Europe, with various subspecies, in Italy it is abundantly present in all the central-eastern Alps and, locally, in Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta. In the central and southern Apennines the cervo it is present with less widespread nuclei, but tending to expansion (for example, Casentinesi Forests, Abruzzo and Sila National Park). Of considerable importance is a residual nucleus in the Bosco della Mesola (FE), which represents the wreck of the original native Po population (Prigioni et al., 2001).
DEER: Size and trend of populations
The European densities of deer they are estimated between 5 and 45 individuals / km2 (with a consistency, up to the 90s, of about 1,3 million heads; Boitani et al., 2003). The national historical area probably included a large part of the peninsular territory and Sardinia, but starting from the seventeenth century it has been greatly reduced due to environmental transformations and the growth of direct persecution by man; the residual continental nuclei expanded after World War II, helped by the immigration of individuals from neighboring countries (Switzerland) and by reintroduction operations throughout the western Alps. Currently the species of the cervo is expanding and in Italy there are about 43.000 animals (as of 2000; Boitani et al., 2003), of which about 34.000 concentrated in the Alps, more than 5000 in the Apennines and about 2700 in Sardinia. Only the Apennine and Sardinian populations are not subjected to hunting (Spagnesi & De Marinis, 2002).
DEER: Conservation and management
Considered not threatened, the Porto Cervo it has practically no natural predators that contain it numerically, with the exception of the wolf, in the areas where it is present; the latter is able to hunt the Porto Cervo only by using group hunting techniques, which are difficult to apply in Italy and in most of Europe (Prigioni et al., 2001). However, there is a strong competition with the Roe deer and with the Alpine chamois; this phenomenon entails the need for cross-management of the size of the populations in the overlapping areas. The cervo it bears the presence and disturbance caused by dogs better than the Roe deer, while it is negatively influenced by the presence of high-traffic roads, which considerably limit the possibility of movement and migration (Prigioni et al., 2001). Porto Cervo it can cause considerable damage to forest species, through tearing, tearing of shoots or barking; damage to crops is caused by both stripping and trampling. To avoid damage to silvicultural habitats, maximum densities should be contained within 5-6 individuals / km2. Once a given density threshold is exceeded, populations can escape control, with devastating consequences for agricultural and forest environments (Prigioni et al., 2001). Adequate countermeasures could be, rather than the use of fences, the implementation of environmental improvement interventions such as, for example, the maintenance of a good percentage of broad-leaved trees in the forests, periodic cuts to rejuvenate the forest, creation and maintenance of clearings, cultivation to lose even in the forest (Tosi & Toso, 1992).
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