In doctoral dissertation, roe deer mandibles were used as bioindicator of environmental pollution and a tool for better management of roe deer population. Assessment of dental fluorosis was done in the total annual cull of adult roe deer, and a map of fluoride pollution of the entire Slovenia was drawn in a high spatial resolution. Results showed that dental fluorosis of roe deer in Slovenia is significantly lower in comparison with other populations from Europe. The quality and abundance of food, precipitations and the density of red deer have the main influence on the mandible lengths.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 1099222“1. Slovene conference on game management: roe deer” was organised (the principle investigator was also the president of both organizing and scientific committee) in Velenje (22.11.2008), with 130 participants coming from Slovenia, Croatia, Italy and Great Britain, respectively. Two topics, which represent also the main issues of the project, were emphasised at the meeting as follows: (i) roe deer as a bioindicator of the quality of habitats; (ii) development and implementation of methods/principles/solutions for better management with roe deer populations in Slovenia.
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
COBISS.SI-ID: 2289574Methodology, principles as well as results used or obtained in the project were presented to the end-users at several occasions as follows: (i) several lectures given to professional auditorium (game managers, dog breeders, hunter's probationers) of many Hunting Management Districts across Slovenia; (ii) published oral presentation at the “1. Slovene meeting on game management: roe deer”; (iii) technical paper, published in Slovene hunting magazine Lovec; (iv) several lectures given to students of different high school programmes. For details, see also Chapter 8.
D.10 Educational activities
COBISS.SI-ID: 963542In ungulates, different affections/injuries of jaws/teeth can lead to the dysfunction of the chewing system and might have a negative influence on the health status of individuals. Therefore, anomalies/lesions were studied on >20,000 mandibles of roe deer from the East Slovenia. Prevalence and the distribution of these affections have generally random (dispersed) pattern, and are usually not affected by any parameter of habitat quality. However, grouping of some of anomalies (e.g. hypoplasia) indicates that both genetic and environmental cofactors should be studied in the future.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 1017558In 2009, in collaboration with the most important Slovene research groups on the field of environmental protection we prepared backgrounds for comprehensive biomonitoring programme, which should started by Slovene Chemical Bureau in the future. Therein, roe deer (and particularly its mandibles) is decided to be the key species in terrestrial ecosystems. Moreover, we developed a new Environmental Indicator for the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, which is based on the results, obtained in very this project.
F.15 Development of a new information system/databases
COBISS.SI-ID: 6124409