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Wild animals are a good indicator of environmental pollution
Wild animals are a good indicator of environmental pollution that affects the entire ecosystem. Therefore, the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics and the Biotechnical Faculty, has decided to conduct a study to examine the amount of toxicants in the tissues of certain animal species in Slovenia.
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Sustainable Use of Soil with E-MOTIKA
Tillage machines are a necessity in agriculture, but they compact the soil and do not allow smaller farmers and growers to till and weed in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner. Researchers from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana, together with project partners on the Accelerated Vegetable Hoeing project - "MOTIKA," addressed this challenge by developing a hoeing machine specifically for smaller farmers and crop growers.
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LIFE Lynx project - preventing the extinction of the lynx in the Dinaric Mountains and the South-Eastern Alps
How to save the Eurasian lynx population in the Dinarides and the South-Eastern Alps from extinction again? This is the challenge that the LIFE Lynx project, in which the Biotechnical Faculty of UL participated as a partner, has successfully tackled. Before the start of the project, there were 20 adult lynx in Slovenia, which were threatened by inbreeding. A total of 14 animals were introduced from the Romanian and Slovakian Carpatian Mountains, 9 of them in Slovenia and 5 in the Croatian Dinaric Mountains. This not only saved the population, but also set an example of good practice for all future attempts to reintroduce lynx or similar large carnivore species in Europe.
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How do wild animals react to human presence in their environment?
Understanding how animals respond to people is becoming increasingly important in the face of growing disturbances such as tourism, recreation, driving in natural environment and the exploitation of natural resources. To this end, researchers from around the world have pooled their data to find out how wild animals respond to people in their environments. The results showed considerable differences among different species, with large carnivores proving to be the most sensitive to humans. Part of the research was also carried out in Slovenia, where researchers from the University of Ljubljana’s Biotechnical Faculty and the Slovenia Forest Service observed the strongest response in brown bears. The researchers hope that the new knowledge will facilitate coexistence between humans and animals, and enable more effective mitigation of the negative impact of recreation and other human activities in nature.
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Researchers from UL unexpectedly discovered new way of foraging by spotted hyenas in Africa
Spotted hyenas are the second largest species of large carnivore in Africa. Most people know them as scavengers, but they are in fact also successful hunters of antelope, zebra and other African ungulates. Little is known about their feeding on smaller prey. In Namibia, researchers from the University of Ljubljana have discovered an unusual and hitherto unknown way of feeding the local hyenas - on songbirds.
