9th International Deer Biology Congress

AUTHORS: Eugene Yu. Likhatskiy, Yuri P. Likhatskiy, and Andrey E. Subbotin*, Wildlife Park Oleniy, Krasnoye

ABSTRACT: Wildlife Park Oleniy (WPO) is a privately owned 1,500 ha area established in 2012, that lies 400 km south of Moscow. The goal of WPO is to sustain and manage the entire zonal ecosystem of feather-grass steppe and associated agricultural land.

There are five species of wild ungulates in WPO: red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), sika deer (Cervus nippon), fallow deer (Dama dama), and European mouflon sheep (Ovis musimon). Only red and roe deer are native.

Since 2012, the abundance of all 5 species has increased three to five-fold.
There are three main objectives of ungulate management in WPO:
1. Creation of a genetic reserve of red deer with high trophy quality to preserve their unique gene pool. At present, this part of Russia contains a genetically isolated and rather highly polymorphic group of the red stag that originated from the Voronezh region. Our studies showed that deer from the Voronezh region have rare genetic variants that have been lost in Western Europe, where mixed lineages have prevailed for the purpose of meat production. It is these deer pos-sessing unique genetic characteristics that should serve as source stock for the further restora-tion of this species. Conservation of this genetic reserve provides for replenishment of the group with the translocation of animals of only "Voronezh” origin, breeding work with the herd and the formation of the optimal sex-age ratio.
2. Development of high-quality reindeer stock for translocation in hunting areas. This source stock will serve as a resource for hunting and for the restoration of self sustaining populations of this species into suitable habitat. Over the past three years, more than 500 individual ungulates from WPO have been translocated in the hunting grounds of Central Russia. The work on the resto-ration includes the development of methods for catching, overexposing, transporting and releas-ing animals into a new habitat.
3. Translocation of a group of sika deer to WPO and development of a velvet production center at WPO. This sika facility will require the development of a scientific program that provides facili-ties for the full cycle of activities related to the collection of velvet raw materials (antlers and blood), methods for handling animals, the ability to store selected raw materials, and the pro-cessing methods to allow the entire complex of biologically active substances to be preserved until the production of products can be accomplished with further certification.

Further increasing the number of individuals of each species at WPO along with the objectives mentioned above should open the prospect for the beginning of wild meat production. However, a stable market is needed, which today remains quite unpredictable in Russia.