Management plan
The presence of wild ungulates that escaped from fenced areas decades ago, specifically deer, is gradually decreasing in areas where theMadonie Park Authority has implemented the control operations provided for in the management plan for this species. This is the first result that emerges from the technical analysis in progress, carried out at the end of the first phase of monitoring and estimation of the fallow deer population within the protected territory. The data collected show that, in the most peripheral areas of the Park where the containment operations were conducted, the number of fallow deer has significantly reduced. A result that, on the one hand, confirms the effectiveness of the measures undertaken, but on the other requires maintaining high attention on a complex and delicate problem, which has impacts both on the protection of biodiversity and on the agro-silvo-pastoral activities present in the Park.
The most central areas
"This is an important result - comments the Commissioner of the Park Authority Salvatore Caltagirone - which satisfies us but above all stimulates us to further improve the management system of the species, also in the direction of the principles of compatibility and use of the protected area, gradually adopting the necessary technical measures with a view to adaptive management expressly provided for in the spirit of the approved management plan. In this perspective, in fact, it will be necessary to work now together with all the competent subjects in environmental matters, to also plan interventions in the most central areas of the Park, where up to now, in full compliance with the approved management plan, no control interventions have been implemented and the presence of fallow deer remains significant". On the front of interventions to manage the population of suids, following the approval of the relative Plan, operations began about a month ago, but for now only through the capture strategy by means of special trap cages. The first data already report dozens of animals removed in a few weeks.
New selecontrollers
“Also in this case – adds Caltagirone – an acceleration and further improvement of the procedures have been initiated, to better reorganize the management activities of the suids, specifically the capture activities, to be implemented also in synergy with the Municipalities and in collaboration with private individuals specifically identified and trained”. Finally, there are 155 new selecontrollori admitted to the next training courses to support the management of the species subject to numerical containment, courses that will take place both remotely and in person at the municipality of Isnello, under the supervision of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Sicily. The new operators will join the 100 selecontrollori already qualified for interventions on suids and the 80 currently involved in the implementation of the fallow deer plan (source Parco delle Madonie).
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