Management and income of the economically most important game species of Serbia

Abstract

The most important hunting game species found in majority of established hunting grounds in the Republic of Serbia are roe deer, wild boar and hare. The objective of this paper is to determine abundance, shooting rate and income generated by managing mentioned game populations in Serbia. On the basis of data of the Republican Bureau of Statistics of Serbia the records on abundance and shooting rate in game species in the 2011-2021 period were collected. The value of shot animals has been determined both on the basis of market pricelist of the Hunting Association of Serbia for the 2021/22 hunting year and according to the structure of animals shot per certain game categories obtained in previous research. Shooting rate realized in relation to overall roe deer abundance in 2021 was 7.90% with the shooting value reaching 1,106,724 euros. Wild boar abundance index recorded population growth of even 33.53% in 2021 and percentage of population utilization accounted for 63.83% while value of shooting reached 834,509 euros being three times higher than the income of shooting established in 2011. Hare population abundance has recorded a drastic fall and this decreasing trend has been reflected also in a reduced shooting rate thus in 2021 the value of shooting rate of hare was 676,625 euros. The results of the analysis of abundance, shooting rate and trends regarding their values make a basis for indicating a direction of improvement and the measures to enhance the management of these game species populations.