I am writing a chapter on whitetailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and that includes a short piece on extralimital populaitons of that species. I have included (below) the information I was able to gather about white-tailed deer in former Yugoslavia. I can not find anyone who has any knowledge of the current status of these Serbian and Croatian populations. I don't know if they still persist. It seems there has to be someone who can help me fill in the gaps of knowledge. Does anyone here know anyone you can forward this to that might be able to help me? I have friends who can translate a response from German, Serbian, and Croatian to English.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

JIM

Serbia and Croatia

The establishment of white-tailed deer in the former Yugoslavia is a more recent accomplishment. A total of 21 deer from eastern and southern United States formed the nucleus of this effort. Seven deer were translocated from Virginia and Maryland 1970-71 and released into a 12-acre enclosure about 9 miles from Belgrade, Serbia. In 1973, 2 shipments from Pennsylvania and Louisiana totalling 14 white-tailed deer arrived and were placed in a 272-acre enclosure near Karadjordjeve along the Danube River in northwestern Serbia, about 75 miles west of Belgrade (Bojovi? and Halls 1984).



In spring 1975, the captive populations were doing well and so they were used as source stock to increase their distribution in the region. One buck and 2 does were moved to the Deliblato forest east of Belgrade near the Serbian-Romanian border. Another 2 bucks and 3 does were moved to Bra?, a large island on the Croatian coast of the Adriatic Sea (Bojovi? and Halls 1984). In both of these new areas the deer were confined to small enclosures for at least 3 years and then released. The population at Karadjordjeve reached about 400 deer by 1983 and were distributed about 120 miles along the Danube River. A hunting season for this population began in 1980. The status of these relatively new white-tailed deer populations is unknown since the break up of Yugoslavia into Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro in the 1990s.



Bulgaria

Whitehead (1993) mentions white-tailed deer being released in Bulgaria sometime before 1986, but notes that they did not persist.





Jim Heffelfinger
5219 W. Bobwhite Way
Tucson, AZ 85742
Cervidnut@aol.com

Order your autographed copy of "Deer of the Southwest" at WWW.DEERNUT.COM.

Jim Heffelfinger
Regional Game Specialist
Arizona Game and Fish Department
555 N. Greasewood Rd
Tucson, AZ 85742
520 388-4448
jheffelfinger@azgfd.gov

I suggest that you contact Milan Paunovic ( milan.paunovic@nhmbeo.org.yu ) who works at the Natural History Museum in Belgrade and ask him about it. He is a specialist for mammals.

Informacije:
Vojna ustanova Kara?or?evo
Ive Andri?a 63, 21421 Kara?or?evo
021/ 765 107, 765 290


White-tailed deer live there from hunt.

Vojna ustanova "Kara?or?evo"
21421 Kara?or?evo
021/ 765 254, 767 660, 765 107, faks: 021/ 765 222

Boki jel si siguran da tamo imaju bas ove jelene (Odocoileus virginianus) koje coveka interesuju?

I am just asking Boki is he sure that they have the dears that interest you at the place he mentioned cause I think that here they usually keep just:

- Capreolus capreolus, Roe deer, srna
- Cervus elaphus, Red deer, jelen
- Dama dama , Fallow deer , jelen lopatar

i would suggest e-mailing two of our state enterprises for forest management "Srbijasume" and "Vojvodinasume". these companies are involved in most of game breeding and hunting done in our country. so they might have some info that you need.

Srbijasume >> lovstvo@srbijasume.rs
Vojvodinasume >> lovoturs@eunet.rs (this is actually their hunging tourist agency, so i suppose they speak english )

i am forestry student, and whenever i did research for faculty, people in these companies were willing to provide me needed data (even more sensitive than this). introduce your self as you did here, tell them what you need to know, and i am sure that they will help you as much as they can.

Thank You very much! I will follow these ideas. Feel free to post any additional information. Thank you, JIM

"Boki jel si siguran da tamo imaju bas ove jelene (Odocoileus virginianus) koje coveka interesuju?"

Pise na turistickim reklamama za Karadjordjevo da pored evropskog ritskog jelen i jelena lopatara imaju i americkog belorepog jelena, koliko sam video imaju cak i azijskog asiks jelena. Srna mislim da nema mnogo ali zato ima dosta divljih svinja. Steta sto nemaju sajt. Mogu da zovem da ih pitam jel tacno to sto pise u reklami.

Velika je povrsina tog ogradjenog lovista. Nikada nisam bio tamo, gledao sam kako prebrojavaju divljac. Loviste je dosta dugacko ali nije mnogo siroko, nekoliko stotina metara i po duzini ima staza bez rastinja. Gonici krenu s jedne strane od staze groz sumu a osmatraci sede u niskim cekama koje su postavljene pored staze i broje divljac koja predje na drugu stranu sume iza staze. Tako valjda znaju sta ima unutra.

Kazu da je Tito tu zavrsavao drzavne poslove posle lova.

Evo jedan sajt

http://www.eko.vojvodina.gov.rs/index.p ... rdjevo_zpd

Stvarno pise na sajtu da imaju. Ajd Boki ako ti nije tesko pozovi ljude i pitaj dal imaju posto covek ne govori srpski.

I just asked Boki if he can call and ask them since you don't speak Serbian and there is no email to write to.

Hvala vam!

I have sent an e-mail in English to the 3 addresses listed in this thread and also to the address I found on the bottom of the website (ekolog@vojvodina.gov.rs) linked to the last message, but I have received no responses.

Boki, if you can call, I am very interested to learn if they have white-tailed deer there and if there are any white-tailed deer in the wild (outside of fences) anywhere in Serbia.

JIM

Also, I have edited my original text in my chapter (my original post) to simply end with "...former Yugoslavia."

Zvao sam Vojnu ustanovu Karadjordjevo. Rekli su da imaju virdzinijske belorepe jelene. Nemaju sajt ni e-mail adresu. Ako hoce profesor da se raspita koliko ima jedinki, kako su se prilagodili i tako to moze da zove kao i da se organizuju ako zeli da dodje da ih vidi.
Adresa za kontakt im je Ive Andrica 63, 21421 Karadjordjevo i telefon 021-765-107

Pozdrav

Rekli su da su u ogradjenom lovistu jeleni.

Kod nas koliko znam ni evropski ritski jelen ne zivi u neogradjenom prostoru.

Hvala Boki! Evo prevescu coveku caskom sta si rekao...



Here is what Boki said:



He also said in his last post that they told him that all deers there are living inside of the fences, and as far as he knows, European swamp deers (dunno which one that is probably Fallow deer) are also not living outside of the fences, and in the wild here in Serbia.

Hvala Vam! Thank you very much that is exactly what I was looking for. I don't suppose anyone would speak English on the other end of the phone line. The number of deer there is interesting to me, but not cruciual to finishing my chapter. I mostly needed to know if there were any deer in the wild or where they are in the country.

Thank you very much.

JIM