|
27
z
z
zzzzz
Sove su gradiću
donele i novu vrstu
prepoznatljivosti pa
su postale motivi
lokalnih suvenira
e
The owls have
also brought this
small town a new
kind of recognition
and have become
the themes of local
souvenirs
Raste i broj
turista, iz susedne
Mađarske, na
primer, koji dolaze
u grad na „sova
safari“
e
The number
of tourists is also
growing, from
neighbouring
Hungary for
example, who
come to the city to
experience an “owl
safari”
e
biologists who questioned the research,
they saw for themselves over 300 owls
in the trees during their time in town.
Kikinda and the surrounding area is now
recognized as the largest wintering site of
long-eared owls on the planet.
Soon a small but growing tourist in-
dustry sprang up around the owls. People
like David Lindo, a British writer and
broadcaster who leads birding trips twice
a year to the town and the surrounding
area, started coming. “During my first
trip,” he say, “I saw something like 1000
long-eared owls in central areas around
Kikinda.” While a portion of Kikinda’s
owls are local to the area, a fairly large
portion are also thought to come from
Russia and Ukraine, because, unlike
long-eared owls from places like Poland
and Germany that have been tagged,
these visiting owls in Vojvodina have not
been. Milan and his team have learned
how to tag the birds and they hope to get
more data about where the birds are com-
ing from. “If you are an owl from Ukraine
and you fly over the area and see 20
owls flying into town, you follow them,”
he says. Interestingly, short-eared owls,
notoriously people-shy, have also started
to roost in Kikinda’s trees as well. “Short-
eared owls normally hunt in open ground
and do not hang out in urban areas,” says
David, who from May 16 to 22 will be
hosting a Serbian birding trip. “But now
they are sharing the roosting space with
long-eared owls.”
The town is also getting in on the owl
action. From this October, there will be
maps of the town square and surround-
ing parts of town, showing tourists where
to best find roosts and local shops like
Artesa sell locally-made
owl-themed handicrafts
like knitted caps, socks and
bags. The residents of Ki-
kinda are now used to tour-
ists hanging out under their
pine and spruce trees, look-
ing up—and down—to find
owls. “Before all this, if you
walked around with your
binoculars in town, people
used to look at you and go
“strange,” says Milan. “Now-
adays, they will grab you,
take you under a conifer and
say “this is the best tree.”
The owls are not only
helping with tourism in Ki-
kinda, they are also helping
local farmers. Milan said
there are estimates that an
owl family of five birds can
eat up to 10,000 rodents
a year. Voles, meanwhile,
breed like crazy—one female
can have up to 10 litters
a year and, in that year,
her offspring can produce
up to a million voles. If it
weren’t for the owls, farmers
would not only have to use
poisons to kill the rodents,
but they would lose mul-
tiple tons of hay and grain
each year to rodents. With
that money saved, a farmer
therefore could afford a few
more cows, producing that
much more milk and milk
products that can be sold at
market.
The BBC recently came
to town to shoot a feature
on Kikinda’s owls that will
air next year and busloads
of tourists from places like
Hungary have started to
arrive in town. So why are
people so interested in
owls, even those who don’t
usually give a hoot about
birding? “There is a human
quality to owls,” says Milan.
“Every other bird have eyes
on side of their head. But
owls’ eyes are like ours and
their beaks looks like a nose
and a little mouth. Owls
look right at you. It is some-
thing special, which is why
they say owls are wise.” If
the town of Kikinda is wise,
they better get ready for the
onslaught of tourists –their
cameras poised and ready—
coming for these unique owl
safaris.
Fotografija / Photography Vladimir Miloradović
Fotografija / Photography Vladimir Miloradović
