WE SUCCESSFULLY ACCOMPANIED TRITURUS CARNIFEX INTO THE NEW LIFE IN JOVSI

This season of supportive breeding in the breeding station in Kozjanski Park was successful again. More than 100 larvae of the Triturus carnifex were raised this year. On Wednesday, September 6, we accompanied 92 young ones to their new life in Jovsi. The rest of them will be at the breeding station for a few more days until the transformation is completed, after that they will be returned to the new ponds in Jovsi.

The end of the second successful season of supportive breeding was marked by collectively releasing young Triturus carnifex into new ponds in Jovsi. In the introductory part, the manager of Kozjanski Park, mag. Valerija Slemenšek, project manager Suzana Levstek from the Municipality of Grosuplje, Katja Poboljšaj from the Center for Cartography of Fauna and Flora, and Anja Bolčina from Kozjanski Park presented the purpose, content, and activities of the LIFE AMPHICON project in Kozjanski Park and other project areas, with an emphasis on the supportive breeding of Triturus carnifex in Podsreda.

The event was attended by the president of the community parish Kapele Ivan Borošak, representative of the Municipality of Brežice Matejka Gerjevič, representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Space Maja Cipot, director of the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Protection mag. Teo Hrvoje Oršanič, head of the OE Novo mesto of the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Protection, Barbara Kink, representatives of the Radensko Polje landscape park, and local residents. After the presentation and conversation in Kapele, young Triturus carnifex were transferred to Jovsi to the new water ponds, where everyone could release their own.

With supportive breeding, we want to preserve and increase the population of Triturus carnifex in Jovsi (Natura 2000 Dobrava – Jovsi), as it is small, isolated, and in a poor state of conservation. At the same time as supportive breeding, Kozjanski park bought 15 ha of land in the project area in Jovsi to improve aquatic and terrestrial habitats for amphibians. Kozjanski park has excavated 10 ponds on them, and on the remaining parts of the land, woody growth and non-native invasive plant species is being removed with appropriate mowing and mulching, thereby re-establishing wet extensive meadows. Such habitats will not only be more suitable for Triturus carnifex and other amphibians, but also for many other aquatic and riparian organisms.

Photo: K. Jazbinšek, T. Kotnik, S. Levstek, T. Stepišnik