On the morning of July 29th, a Course for monitors and for the experimental hunting sampling of the Hare Italica. Great participation by the requesting hunters, who, with great attention, followed the two parts of the course which concerned, in fact, the Monitoring and the experimental hunting sampling. The report on the Hare was given by Dr. Walter Trocchi while the part concerning the use of the XCaccia App was held by Eng. Giuseppe Giannini.
Already in the recent past hunters had been trained who had taken care of it before the monitoring phase and subsequently the collection of the Hare species, always with personal authorization from the Region of Sicily. Both the previous hunters and the participants in the July 29 Course will have uploaded for free, as offered by Federcaccia, on their smartphone, the XCaccia App which will allow them to electronically record both hunting days and any withdrawals. The XCaccia App will obviously flank the Hunting Card on which any withdrawals will be marked.
The updated App, before the start of the hunting season, will report to the Hunter in real time the limits set by the Hunting Calendar in force on the eligible day or not suitable for collection, if the Hunter is inside or outside the territories where the Project takes place and the limits of the game bag. The App will also inform the Hunter of the Withdrawal Plan and any early closure of the Hunt for the species. In addition, the qualified Hunter will collaborate in monitoring the Italian Hare which is a preliminary action to the proposed Sampling Plan.
The biological samples collected will be subsequently delivered to the Laboratory of Applied Zoology of the University of Palermo from which analysis can be obtained valuable information on the biology of the species to improve the sustainable management of this wild. A heartfelt thanks goes to Sicily region, to Dr. Mario Candore, to Dr. Roberta Paci. Thanks also to Prof. Mario Lo Valvo of the University of Palermo. Finally, and last but not least, heartfelt thanks to all participants who followed the various phases of the course with participatory interest, applauding the two speakers at the end of the day (source: Hunting Federation).