Mowing caused mortality of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) fawns in an agricultural-forest mosaic in Slovenia

The aim of the thesis was to asses the early mortality rate of roe deer fawns due to mowing in a forest-agriculture mosaic landscape, and to find out which type of mowing and in which time period the major number of fawns are killed by mowers and whether simple scaring devices can decrease the mortality rate due to mowing. In the area of Hunting ground Kajuh in the village of Šmartno v Rožni dolini, we chose 100 farms. Thirty-three randomly selected farms (preventive group) set simple scaring devices in order to reduce fawn mortality, whereas the rest of the farms (control group) did not set any scaring devices. The scaring device consisted of a black sack attached to a 1.80 m long pole. These poles had to be placed in a field that was about to be mown 24 hours before mowing, one pole per hectare. During our research 13 roe deer fawns were killed by mowers. The highest rate of mortality was perceived in the beginning and in the middle of June, that is 4.5 fawns per 100 ha. Twelve fawns were killed by tractor mowers and one by a sickle mower. The control group suffered a loss of 3.3 fawns per 100 ha of mowed meadows and the preventive group 2 fawns per 100 ha. Our conclusion was that simple scaring devices had decreased the mortality rate of roe deer fawns, but to a lesser degree than expected, though it is true that the farmers did not always set the scaring devices according to our instructions