Sardinia Forests Department continues with the protection measures of the Sardinian deer, financed by the U.E

Due to bad weather conditions, it wasn't possible to proceed with the transfer of 5 deer to Corsica (one of the project target for repopulation). Project staff reorganized the operations: the deer were moved and released in the SIC area of Gennargentu (one of the project target areas for repopulation). Despite of the mentioned adversed weather conditions, project activities "on the field" go on. At the end of the project 80 deer will be released to the repopulation of Sardinia (40 in the SIC Supramonte and 40 in Monti del “Gennargentu”) and 40 deer will be moved to Corsica: so far, 50 releases in Sardinia and 10 in Corsica took place.

Preparation for the release

The deer's release in an area requires the capture of some species in a territory where the deer’s population is stable and resistant. The species that must be moved are adult, young and sane, with a great capability of adaptation, that allows them to tolerate the transport to the area of release.

Every animal (both captured or moved) is submitted to health control. The project “One deer two Islands” includes areas of repopulation in Sardinia and in Corsica as well as some mixing activities of the populations already existent, in order to share genetic pool.

Captures and releases for the areas’ repopulation

On March 30th, 2015, five deer were captured to be moved to Corsica to repopulate the French Massif du Rotondo – one of the target areas of the project. This kind of cooperation between Sardinia and Corsica is one of the main strenght points of this LIFE Project. The final result will be a better genetic variability and an increase of the areas populated by this species (Cervus elaphus corsicanus).

Unforeseen situations and solutions

Due to an Act of God, the maritime service between Sardinia and Corsica was stopped. In order to avoid problems to animals which had been already captured, it was necessary to release them quickly. Therefore, the Project staff decided to change the destination to Monti del Gennargentu.

On March the 30th, the five deer were released in the Seui forest – inside of the SIC Monti del Gennargentu. This is an area where other nine deer were already released. Four of them have been equipped with radio-collars to monitor their movements.