At the end of December, an ornithologist Maksym Yakovlev and a zoologist Oleksandr Gaydash traditionally went to the Ukrainian part of the Danube Delta to count the Dalmatian pelicans. Due to the war, access to some areas was limited or even closed, but scientists managed to do the counts in many large water bodies of the delta.
The year 2022 is coming to an end in the Danube delta, shared by three countries… To put it mildly, it was a difficult year for the people and nature of Ukraine. Every corner of the country, every business or community was affected by the war.
A new UN report, set to be published today at COP 15, recognises the Danube Delta rewilding landscape as a European nature restoration showcase. The report aims to accelerate nature restoration by providing examples of inspirational nature restoration initiatives and the wide-ranging benefits they are delivering.
Today, global warming is increasingly affecting people and nature across the world. Rewilding is a great way of enhancing the climate change resilience of landscapes and communities.
Not only iconic large animal species are important for nature. Lesser known species, such as the European beaver, also play an important role in the rewilding of natural systems. The fauna and flora of the Danube Delta and adjacent areas create complex, balanced and interdependent ecosystems that support wildlife and people. In these systems, each species has its important place and affects many other species. Let’s talk about beavers: why they are interesting and why they are useful for nature and local communities.
Last week, the construction of an artificial nesting platform for the Dalmatian pelicans was completed on one of the Danube lakes on the south of Ukraine as part of the “Pelican Way Of LIFE” initiative. The Rewilding Ukraine team hopes that this season the flying giants will build their nests on it.
Last week, a group of female fallow deer arrived at the protected Tarutino steppe and was temporarily released into an acclimatization enclosure. They joined the males that settled here two years ago to lay the foundation for a stable population of the species in the region.
A family of three European hamsters was released into the wild in the protected Tarutino steppe in the south of Odesa oblast as part of the cooperation of the Kyiv Zoo, Rewilding Ukraine, and the Tarutino steppe nature and ethnographic park. Hamsters, along with other herbivores reintroduced to the region through rewilding efforts, should restore food chains and enrich the steppe fauna.
Today, many countries celebrate World Rivers Day. Rivers are very important to people because they provide us with many important things: food, clean water, building materials, transportation corridors, opportunities for recreation and tourism, and much more. But not only people gravitate to rivers and water bodies. Rivers and especially wetlands are home, kitchen or bedroom for many plants and animals of our planet. More than 40% of species are associated with these natural systems in one way or another. Let’s figure out what the term “biodiversity” means, which you can hear quite often from ecologists, and how we are related to it.
Rewilding goes on even in hard times. More than 22 cubs of various species were born in the rewilding areas in the Danube Delta. The Rewilding Ukraine team is delighted that this year’s breeding season in the region went very well despite the war in Ukraine and drought.