ProProProjPro jjjecececectt title: Feasibility Study for TransTrans----borderborder Biosphere Reserve Osogovo Ref. N: 20072007CBCBCBCB16161616IPOIPOIPOIPO007007007007----2012012012012222----3333----047047047047 Final Report - Annexes FAUNA Feasibility Study for Trans-border Biosphere Reserve Osogovo Author: Metodija Velevski May 2015 This project is co financed by European Union through --- IPA CROSSCROSS---- BORDER PROGRAMME CCI Number 2007CB161P0007 1 1 Annex For the needs of this report, published references, unpublished reports and author’s data were used as data source. The available reports were dealing with different faunistic groups, presented by country. Effort was done to unify the available information and to identify the species of greatest conservation concern, for which site-conservation approach – in this sense, possible establishment of biosphere reserve - is considered appropriate. In total, presence of about 1300 animal species is known for the geographical border of Osogovo Mountain, with number of taxonomic groups bein insufficiently studied. From this total, 1030 are invertebrates, and 271 are vertebrates (plus 63 non-breeding bird species). The fauna of Invertebrates is a mixture of species characteristic for Central Europe, (sub)Mediterranean region, northern Europe and alpine belt. Only some groups are well studied, and major gaps exist for many others. 61 molusk species are recorded, 60 of which snails. Seven of them are Balkan endemics. Spiders are well studied, and 590 species are known so far. About 60 are Balkan endemics, and some sre endemic to Osogovo Mt. One species is of Europena importance. About 20 species of dragonflies are recorded, two of which are Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. One-hundred and five orthopterans are known, 17 of which are of conservation value, and 13 are endemic. Dayly butterflies are presented with at least 120 specie, eight of wich are important. The Bulgarian part of Osogovo is Prime Butterfly Area in Europe. Finally, about 280 species of ground beetles are recorded, being among te highes value for any Balkan Mountain. One of them is on the Global red list (near threatened). Twenty species are endemic. From the vertebrate fauna (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals), about 180 species are of some conservation concern (7 threatened on the global IUCN Red List, 7 on the European IUCN Red List, 36 are listed in the Annex I of the Birds Directive, 17 in the Annex II of the Habitats Directive, 159 are enlisted on the Appendix II of the Bern Convention, and 76 on the Appendices I & II of the Bonn Convention. 178 are protected by the Bulgarian national legislation, while 72 are protected by the Macedonian national legislation. Most important regions for conservation of the fauna are the river gorges (Zletovska, Stalkovachka on Macedonian, Gryenska on Bulgarian side), the steppic-like terrains in the SW parts on the Macedonian side, and the high-mountain patures on both sides of the Mountain. Some smaller regions for specific groups/taxa are also identified. General threats include habitat loss and fragmentation, especially for forest habitats, risks of change of water regimes of rivers and ponds (catchments, construction activities), disturbance, overexploitation of forest by-products (berries), and poaching. Conservation recommendations include changes of forestry practice, tighter control of construction activities and proclamation of the most important regions as protected. Challenges are expected while implementing those conservation activities, especially with the forestry sector and tourism development, but possibilities exist to overcome the differences on long run. 2 2 Assessment of the fauna and its valorization 2.1 Invertebrates – diversity and conservation The invertebrate fauna of Osogovo Mt. represents a mixture of species characteristic for the central parts of Europe, species of the Mediterranean region (penetrating through the valleys of rivers Vardar and Struma) as well as species of the alpine belts and northern Europe. There is significant number of Balkan and local endemics on Osogovo Mt., as well. The diversity of invertebrates on Osogovo Mt. will be assessed in this report and further implemented in the coming period. At the present moment, we focus on the best studied groups: mollusks, spiders, butterflies, dragonglies, orthopterans and ground beetles. 2.1.1 Mollusks (snails and shells) The first data on mollusks of Osogovo Mt. were published already in 1856 by Mousson based on the collection of Alexander Schlafl. Two more researchers published data on mollusks of Osogovo Mt. in the beginning of 20 century: Jurinic (1906) and Wohlberedt (1911) and they were later followed by many European and Bulgarian researchers. The latest and most comprehensive research was conducted by Dedov and Mitev (2012). In total, there are 61 species of mollusks recorded on Osogovo Mt.: 45 for the Bulgarian and 38 for the Macedonian part (Appendix B1). Only one of them is shell (Bivalvia) and the rest of 60 species are snails. It is important to note that the Mediterranean and Euro-siberian species are almost equally represented, by 29 and 31 species, respectively. Most of the species (16) are characteristic for beech forests on Osogovo Mt. These forests are also inhabited by a number of Balkan endemic species: Alinda biplicata michaudiana , Bulgarica serbica , Cattania haberhaueri , Tandonia kusceri , T. serbica , Vitrea ranojevici and V. bulgarica . It is interesting that the species Macedonica marginata was found only on Bulgarian part of Osogovo Mt., while Bulgarica vetusta was found only on Macedonian part of Osogovo Mt. 2.1.2 Spiders (Araneae) The spiders on Osogovo Mt are represented by enormous number of species. So far, we know of almost 590 species (Appendix B2), 450 of them for the Macedonian and 336 species for the Bulgarian part of Osogovo Mt. This is a results of 100 years of research on Osogovo Mt. The first data were published by Bulgarian arachnologist Drensky in 1913. However, the study of spiders was completed recently, by the research of Deltchev (2009) and Komnenov (2009, 2014). At present, Osogovo Mt. is the richest mountain with spiders on the whole of Balkan Peninsula. Most of the spiders have European or Palaearctic distribution. Nevertheless, 10% of the spiders are characteristic for the Mediterranean complex and this is evident in the southern slopes of the Macedonian part of Osogovo Mt. Balkan endemic species are represented by similar percentage. Some of the species are endemic of Osogovo Mt. (stenoendemics) and some of them were described in the last few years: Harpactea mariae, Harpactea bulgarica and Typhochrestus penevi . This is a signal that more species will be described in near future. 2.1.2.1 Species of conservation importance So far, there is only one spider species of European importance on Osogovo Mt: Eresus kollari Rossi, 1846 found near villages of Bogoslov and Stradalovo (Bulgaria). This species is included in the European red list of plants and animals (ESC). The list of other important species is given in Appendix B2-a. 3 2.1.3 Dragonflies (Odonata) There are about 20 species of dragonflies on Osogovo Mt. These species inhabit clear mountainous waters and fewer are to be found in the mountain peats. There are several important species of dragonflies such as: Calliaeschna microstigma and Cordulegaster heros - vulnerable species according to the IUCN red list of threatened species. 2.1.4 Orthopterans (grasshoppers, crickets, bushcrickets, mantids, earwigs and cockroaches) The groups of Blattodea, Mantodea, Dermaptera and Orthoptera are comparatively well studied both in Europe and the Balkans, though the knowledge on their taxonomy and distribution in Macedonia is far from being adequate. Eastern Macedonia is among the most poorly explored territories on the Balkan Peninsula. Until now there is no data present in the literature about the cockroaches, mantids, earwigs, grasshoppers, crickets and bushcrickets occurring on Osogovo Mountains. Altogether, 105 taxa have been recognized in the study of Chobanov (2009a, 2009b) based on field investigations and review of the available collections (Macedonian Museum of Natural History in Skopje and National Natural History Museum in Sofia) (Appendix B3). There are 83 taxa recorded in the Macedonian part of Osogovo Mt. The same number of 83 taxa (only Orthoptera) was established for the Bulgarian part of the mountain. 2.1.4.1 Species of conservation value We found 17 species of conservation value (20%). 13 species (16%) are endemics. These include: Regional endemics (endemics for a restricted territory, e.g. river valley or a mountain group) – 3 species, Balkan endemics – 4 species, Balkan subendemics (species with their origin and main range on the Balkans but also penetrating into neighbouring territories) – 6 species. The listo of important species is given in Appendix B3-a. Species of international importance could be regarded Metrioptera domogledi (IUCN) and Paracaloptenus caloptenoides (Habitats directive). The latter has its centre of distribution on the Balkans, and although having fragmented distribution, it is comparatively common in Macedonia and in parts of Bulgaria. Species of regional importance have bigger conservation value since from one side such taxa have very restricted or fragmented occurrence in Macedonia and Osogovo Mountain and from the other side, some species of international importance have wide distribution in the region. For the reason mentioned