Milovice Nature Reserve ( cs, Přírodní rezervace Milovice) is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

next to the towns of

Milovice Milovice (; german: Milowitz) is a town in Nymburk District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 12,000 inhabitants. In the 20th century, the history of the town was influenced by the presence of a military base. ...

and Benátky nad Jizerou in

Nymburk District Nymburk District ( cs, okres Nymburk) is a district in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Nymburk. Administrative division Nymburk District is divided into three administrative districts of municipalitie ...

Central Bohemian Region The Central Bohemian Region ( cz, Středočeský kraj, german: Mittelböhmische Region) is an administrative unit ( cz, kraj) of the Czech Republic, located in the central part of its historical region of Bohemia. Its administrative centre is in ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. Th ...

. Established in 2015, the area is administered by the Česká krajina o.p.s. organization, as a part of Evropsky významná lokalita Milovice-Mladá CZ0214006 protected area, part of the European Union project

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectiv ...

. This reserve is a pioneering project of cooperation between several scientific bodies (

Czech Academy of Sciences The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes bac ...

, University of South Bohemia České Budějovice,

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , underg ...

Prague,

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU; ( cs, Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze), ČZU; also Czech University of Agriculture in Prague) is a university of agricultural education and research in Prague, the Czech Republic, establish ...

Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) ( cs, Masarykova univerzita; la, Universitas Masarykiana Brunensis) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno as the sec ...

Brno among others) and draws support from many organizations and private sponsors (EU's

Operational Programme Environment An operational definition specifies concrete, replicable procedures designed to represent a construct. In the words of American psychologist S.S. Stevens (1935), "An operation is the performance which we execute in order to make known a concept." F ...

- ,

, EKOSPOL, Net4Gas, Pivovar Zubr, Nadační fond rodiny Orlických, JK Jewels, State Environmental Fund of the Czech Republic, Milovice and Benátky nad Jizerou townships, American International School of Vienna, Milovice kindergarten, Townshend International School in Hluboká nad Vltavou and more).

History

A no longer used military

proving ground A proving ground (US) is an installation or reservation in which technology such as weapons, military tactics and automobile prototypes are experimented with or tested. Proving grounds can be operated by government bodies or civilian industries. ...

near

has been left fallow, after departure of heavy machinery the former open landscape started to be overtaken by bushgrass and other expansive species and its

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity' ...

kept diminishing. Rare species of birds and insects dependent on special ecosystem maintained by military activity started disappearing, until

conservation grazing Conservation grazing or targeted grazing is the use of semi- feral or domesticated grazing livestock to maintain and increase the biodiversity of natural or semi-natural grasslands, heathlands, wood pasture, wetlands and many other habitats.

has been suggested as a method of maintaining the rare ecosystem. While overgrowth management using sheep grazing and scything is being used in some protected areas in the Czech Republic, sheep still graze differently from wild animals and their grazing is selective. ''Česká krajina'' came up with a unique proposition - reintroducing three species of large herbivorous mammals. The project started by fencing in the area and creating an acclimatization pen, then on January 28, 2015, a group of 14

Exmoor ponies The Exmoor pony is one of the mountain and moorland pony breeds native to the British Isles. Some still roam as semi-feral livestock on Exmoor, a large area of moorland in Devon and Somerset in southwest England. The Exmoor has been give ...

were moved from

Exmoor National Park Exmoor is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simonsbath ...

to Milovice in an effort to save the

of the location through conservation

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

. The first herd of six Tauros cattle, bought from Dutch Taurus Foundation, arrived in October 2015. The first herd of European bison has been bought from European Bison Friends Society in Poland in November 2014. The group of seven female bisons from three Polish reserves (Pszczyna, Niepołomice and Kiermusy) arrived to Milovice in December 2015. A second herd of 14 Exmoor mares joined the bison enclosure in December 2015. In January 2018, nine young Exmoor stallions left Milovice on loan to two more protected areas, four are at Na Plachtě ( cz) in

Hradec Králové Hradec Králové (; german: Königgrätz) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 91,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected by law as a ...

and five at

Josefov Meadows The Josefov Meadows Bird Reserve ( cz, Ptačí park Josefovské louky) is a privately owned, publicly accessible nature reserve next to Josefov Fortress near Jaroměř in the Hradec Králové Region, Czech Republic. Established in 2008, the ar ...

bird reserve. The stallions, born in Milovice in 2016, left their herds in accordance with natural behavior. Young stallions are at around two years of age chased away from their herd by its stallion, they form male groups where they grow stronger and better their skills, so that one day the strongest can fight a local stallion for his herd of mares. In February 2018, two Tauros heifers left the Milovice herd on loan to Živá voda exposition in

Modrá (Uherské Hradiště District) Modrá (formerly Nová Ves; german: Neudorf) is a municipality and village in Uherské Hradiště District in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 700 inhabitants. Geography Modrá lies approximately northwest of Uherské Hradi� ...

Rewilding

Large herbivorous mammals (

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North ...

aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') ( or ) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocene ...

Eurasian wild horse The term tarpan (''Equus ferus ferus'') refers to free-ranging horses of the Russian steppe from the 18th to the 20th century. It is generally unknown whether those horses represented genuine wild horses, feral domestic horses or hybrids. The las ...

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The com ...

) used to be an indispensable part of European wildlife. Aurochs and tarpan have been driven to extinction and bison only survived in captivity.

and Tauros cattle are used as an ecological substitute for the wild horse and aurochs.

European bison

European bison, also called

wisent The European bison (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, along ...

, has been brought to Milovice from Poland on December 6, 2015. These seven particular ''Bison bonasus'' females belong to the rarer lowland (Białowieża) line. The bison has good prospects of reintroduction into the wild in the Czech Republic. As the first step, the herd in Milovice is held in a large enclosure. In January 2016 four-year-old bull Polanin III arrived from Ośrodek Kultury Leśnej in Gołuchow ( pl). The first calf was born in May 2016. The international bison studbook has assigned a "TU" prefix to the names of all bisons born in Milovice. *Numbers in total: 21 European bisons - 8 already born in Milovice (June 2018)

Tauros cattle

Since the original

(''Bos primigenius'') went extinct in 1627, ''Česká krajina'' picked breeding back cattle from the Dutch

Tauros Programme The Tauros Programme, formerly known as TaurOs Project, is a cooperation between the Dutch foundation Stichting Taurus and universities such as the Wageningen University and Research Centre. It is an international effort to breed a type of cat ...

. Tauros cattle are a crossbreed of several breeds of cattle with the aim to create a breed resembling aurochs. The first herd of Tauros cattle arrived to the Czech Republic in October 2015, one male and five females. The first calf was born in April 2016. *Numbers in total: 13 Tauros cattle - 7 born in Milovice (February 2018)

Horses

The very first herd of 14 Exmoor ponies (all mares) arrived to the Czech Republic in January 2015, in April the herd was joined by seven-year-old Exmoor stallion Northcroft Firestarter. The first wild horse foal born in the Czech Republic came on October 22, 2015, therefore her mother, Sgurr Na Ban A’Mhoire, must have come to Milovice already pregnant. The first Firestarter offspring arrived in March 2016. A second herd of Exmoors in the adjoining enclosure includes a second breeding stallion from UK, Tawbitts Mystic Merlin, born 2008. *Numbers in total: 55 Exmoor ponies - 25 already born in Milovice (February 2018)

Biodiversity

European jackal The European jackal (''Canis aureus moreoticus'') is a subspecies of the golden jackal present in Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Southeast Europe. It was first described by French naturalist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire during the Morea expeditio ...

has been scientifically observed in Milovice since 2015, the first photographic evidence of jackal breeding came in 2017. It is the northernmost documented location in Europe where jackal successfully breeds. First systematic monitoring of

bats Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

in Milovice discovered at least 18 different bat species, making it a two thirds of the total number of bat species native to the Czech Republic. Higher night-time bat activity was spotted above the large herbivore enclosures, showing the beneficial influence of conservation grazing on insect population. The bats also benefit from numerous ponds providing them with water and from the dense mosaic of deciduous forests, meadows and steppes. Among the counted species is the rare lesser horseshoe bat,

lesser noctule The lesser noctule, Leisler's bat or the Irish bat (''Nyctalus leisleri''), is a species of insectivorous bat belonging to the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae. The species was named to honour the naturalist Johann Philipp Achilles Leisler ...

and Bechstein's bat. A 2016 monitoring of

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises t ...

found 59 species making it 42% of all butterfly species living in the Czech Republic. Eight protected and five endangered species were observed, for example

phengaris rebeli ''Phengaris rebeli'' (formerly ''Maculinea rebeli''), common name mountain Alcon blue, is a species of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It was first found and described in Styria, Austria, on Mount Hochschwab around 1700. Although it was init ...

, large copper, brown argus, plebejus argyrognomon,

silver-washed fritillary The silver-washed fritillary (''Argynnis paphia'') is a common and variable butterfly found over much of the Palearctic realm – Algeria, Europe, temperate Asia, and Japan. Description The silver-washed fritillary butterfly is deep orange with ...

Amanda's blue ''Polyommatus amandus'', the Amanda's blue, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in the Palearctic realm. Description With a wingspan of , Amanda's blue is noticeably larger than most of the "blue" butterflies, which is particu ...

silver-studded blue The silver-studded blue (''Plebejus argus'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It has bright blue wings rimmed in black with white edges and silver spots on its hindwings, lending it the name of the silver-studded blue. ''P. argus'' can be ...

Meleager's blue ''Polyommatus daphnis'', the Meleager's blue, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. Subspecies Subspecies include: * ''Polyommatus daphnis daphnis'' – (South Eastern Europe, Crimea, South Urals) * ''Polyommatus daphnis elamita'' (Le Cer ...

green forester ''Adscita statices'', the green forester, is a moth of the family Zygaenidae. It is found in Europe, Mongolia and western Russia. Description The wingspan is . The antennae, head, thorax, legs and abdomen are shiny green (the thorax is occasio ...

and

pearly heath ''Coenonympha arcania'', the pearly heath, is a butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae. Distribution It can be found in Central Europe. Description It resembles ''Coenonympha hero''. Seitz describes it thus ''C. arcania'' ...

. A European

grey wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

was spotted by a trail cam inside the bison enclosure, so far it seems the animal had just been passing through.

External links

Kudyznudy Czech Tourism

Přírodní rezervace Milovice

Truppenübungsplatz Milowitz
gallery of park photos by Michal Köpping

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milovice Nature Reserve Nymburk District Nature reserves in the Czech Republic Protected areas in Central Bohemian Region IUCN Category IV Natura 2000 in the Czech Republic Protected areas of the Czech Republic Rewilding Charles University Masaryk University University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice