European WILDLIFE

European bison numbers are on the rise in the Czech Republic. At the end of last year, there were 93 animals in the country, as the results of the second national census of these animals endangered throughout Europe indicate. In 2015, over seventy animals were kept in this country.

“The growth in numbers has been facilitated not only through successful breeding of the species in a large portion of domestic institutions, but also through the …

The results of a census of butterflies from a wild horse pasture in the former Milovice military training area outside Prague have taken scientists’ breath away. In two years, the hoofed mammals managed to create a site with a high degree of species diversity, referred to as a “hotspot”. An analysis of the butterfly monitoring results was completed by experts in recent days.

“In 2016, we recorded 59 species of diurnal butterflies in the pasture …

Climate change is becoming increasingly evident in the Arctic regions. The recent strong storm brought masses of warm air over Greenland as far as the North Pole, where it is now 30 degrees warmer than usual as sea ice melts locally due to the warming.

During the storm, the wind was about 140 kilometres per hour, lifting waves at sea over 16 meters high. Consequently, the temperature around the North Pole reached over the past …

Although temperatures at night recorded in a large herbivore reserve located in the former military training area of Milovice near Prague have fallen to minus 20 degrees Celsius in recent days, herds of wild horses, European bison and aurochs produced through a back-breeding programme do not mind cruel frosts. They find sufficient food in the pasture land, be it in the form of dry grass under snow that they can dig out or branches, twigs …

Wild horses coming from Exmoor in England will help preserve two unique localities in Podyji National Park, on the border between the Czech Republic and Austria. Eleven animals brought from England should settle in the National Park this year. The preparations for their arrival started last year in September.

In Podyji the animals will maintain a total area of nearly 70 ha. ‘‘In contrast to domestic animals, they are not choosy and they graze even …