Despite all the efforts made to protect and revitalize the beaver population, it is more or less an endangered species and very sensitive to changes within the ecosystem. Due to the choice of their diet, they cause harm to the population living on the banks of the rivers
Izvor: Shutterstock
Beavers are generally useful animals and have a beneficial effect on the entire environment. They often know how to be a very important factor in preventing floods. Dams and a series of lakes created by beavers are responsible for this. On the other hand, it is partly a harmful animal, because at 100 meters from the water where they live, they cut down trees, but soft ones, such as birch or poplar. In the absence of a better one, they can also attack fruit trees. Their main enemy is man, and their natural enemies are wolves or bears.
Roman Ostojić from Prijedor is a passionate lover of nature and mountains. In addition, he is a passionate fisherman and a great connoisseur of mushrooms. Living in nature every day, he comes across many interesting phenomena, and one of them is beavers, which have recently returned to our rivers to a large extent and there are more and more of them in the vicinity of Prijedor, Novi Grad, Gradiška and other areas throughout the Republic of Srpska. and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to him, there are more and more beaver colonies on the rivers Sana, Japra, Gomjenica and tributaries towards the village of Hasani. They are mostly safe there, but in the photos of our interlocutor, their “artistic work” on the trees next to the Sanica river is obvious.
“At this location, no one touches them. The place is quiet and there are not many fishermen. However, there are more and more hungry trees, but what they do next to the water is not a big damage. This is proof that the water is clean and of good quality. Beavers do not like dirty water nor the otter. Beavers were before us and will remain after us.”Ostojić told us.
Maja Kreća from the organization Green team Novi Grad tells Mondo that beavers are a strictly protected species, which often leads to conflicting attitudes among the local population when it comes to the damage they often cause.
“The beaver population was practically brought to the brink of extinction by hunting for its fur until the beginning of the last century. Only since then has care for this population begun. One of the interesting characteristics is that they choose cleaner rivers and streams for their habitats.”he tells us.
From extermination to a major invasion: Beavers occupied rivers and their tributaries in BiH (PHOTO, VIDEO)
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According to her, the authorities must be proactive in all this and find ways to refund the damage caused by the beaver.
“On the one hand, it is of great importance to ensure the survival of the species, but on the other hand, we must not forget those who suffer damage.”she underlined.
Igor Trbojević from the Faculty of Science and Mathematics of the University of Banja Luka told our portal that beavers are an autochthonous species for the territory of Republika Srpska and BiH in general. In our area, they appeared towards the end of the late glacial period, when the climate became somewhat more favorable.
The presence of the European beaver (Castor fiber L. 1758) in these areas (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia) and the wider region is evidenced by numerous data from paleontological and archaeological excavations, which indicate the continuous presence of the species.
Izvor: Shutterstock
“They used to inhabit all suitable watercourses and water bodies from the north to the south of the European mainland, but at the beginning of the 20th century only six autochthonous mutually isolated populations with
a very small number of individuals. The reason that led to the almost complete disappearance of the European beaver in the whole of Europe is the same as in our country – excessive hunting.”Trbojević told us.
The beaver is a monogamous “family” animal and the largest rodent in the northern hemisphere. It has a massive and stocky build, a flat tail, and is known as an excellent swimmer. It is an exclusive herbivore and feeds on juicy herbaceous plants found in the water or on the shore. They disappeared from BiH in the second half of the 19th century due to large catches and the demand for fur, meat and fat, as well as diseases.
It was held mainly in Norway, Germany and Poland, and almost all European countries joined the project of returning beavers to their former habitats. Croatia resettled them in the mid-90s of the last century, Serbia in 2004, and in April 2005, this was also done in Bosnia and Herzegovina, when 20 beavers were released into the river Semešnica of the Donji Vakuf.
On the territory of Republika Srpska, beavers were reintroduced (reinhabited) on April 16, 2006. The river Sokočnica, near Šipovo, was chosen as the reintroduction site. 20 individuals were released there.
From there, over time, they spread to the Pliva and Janj rivers, and later to the Vrbas river, mostly upstream, and downstream only to the hydroelectric power plants in Jajce.
Source: mondo.ba
Beavers that today inhabit the rivers Una, Sana, Vrbas, Bosnia and the upper course of the Drina (to the hydroelectric plant in Zvornik), as well as their tributaries, came from Croatia, via the Sava River and its left tributaries.
Our interlocutor explained that the current number and density of beaver population in the Republic of Srpska is not known, which is one of the basic parameters that must be known in order to properly manage the species, which is necessary considering that the species is permanently protected.
“Also, there is no species management plan, which is necessary considering that it was already exterminated from these areas and considering that it is very sensitive to changes in the ecosystem (and we are all aware of the frenzy for the construction of small hydroelectric plants). Agreements are being made right now. with the Hunting Association of the RS to start collecting these and other data on beavers in the territory of the RS. As there is a change, i.e. the adoption of the new Law on Hunting, as long as the basic parameters of the beaver population in the RS are not known, it should not change nor its legal protective status”explained Trbojević.
Beavers are herbivorous, semiaquatic species (which means that they spend most of their lives in the aquatic environment). They feed on young shoots of woody and bushy plants, but also on cultivated crops (maize, wheat, etc.).
“Precisely because of the choice of their diet, they cause damage to the local population living on the banks of the mentioned rivers and their tributaries. However, they do not take appropriate protective measures against causing such damage, which they are required to do by law (Hunting Act).”says the interlocutor of the Mondo portal.
Source: mondo.ba
As one of the reasons for beaver poaching, Trbojević cites the fact that the local population is not familiar with the biology of the species, so people thought that beavers feed on fish.
“That is why many illegal killings have been recorded in ponds. Another reason for illegal hunting is that the species is attractive to foreign hunters, and these hunters are not allowed to hunt beavers in their own countries.”underlined the professor from Banja Luka PMF.
At the end of the conversation, he mentioned the benefits of beavers:
– Beavers are “engineers” of the ecosystem, because they create, modify and maintain habitats and ecosystems. Consequently, they have a great positive impact on the biological diversity of the area. They introduce wood into the water, and that wood is food and shelter for the insects. Insects are food for many other aquatic and terrestrial animals (birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles).
– Beavers store water and improve hydrological (water) conditions. They increase surface water storage as ponds form and increase in size. This water is filtered and refilled
underground water. In some places, this increase in water supplies helps sustain streams that might otherwise dry up in the summer.
– As the world‘s climatologists predict, climate change will lead to an increase in temperature and a decrease in precipitation, and precisely lakes and swamps created by beavers lead to the hydromaintenance of thermoregulation of the area. Furthermore, it has been proven that the water that springs from under the beaver lakes is colder by up to 2.5°C, which is very significant for ecosystems in relation to climate change.
The reason that led to the almost complete disappearance of the European beaver throughout Europe is the same as in our country – overfishing, and there are several reasons for the species’ exposure to constant and high hunting pressure:
– Belief in the medicinal properties of certain parts of the body (primarily the castoreum gland),
– The use of gland products for cosmetic purposes, and it is still used in the production of perfumes,
– Quality krzna,
– Eating meat during fasting
(WORLD)