Poaching is a widespread activity that affects wildlife management goals and undermines conservation efforts worldwide. Despite its complexity, poaching is still commonly addressed by researchers as a one-dimensional phenomenon. To deepen the scientific understanding of poaching, we conducted a systematic literature review in the Web of Science and Scopus databases for the last 10 years, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses methodology. We found that most studies were carried out in Africa, although 43% of all articles on poaching were published by researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom. The most studied species are elephants (22%), rhinos (19%), wolves (9%), and bears (6%). Although this study identified a wide range of motives and drivers behind poaching activities, more than half of the analyzed articles do not attempt to provide a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. Its understanding of poaching usually does not go beyond the environmental impact of illegal hunting. Our study’s potential limitations may relate to the focus on exclusively English-language articles and, among them, only those discussing mammal, bird, and reptile species. Our findings indicate that global scientific knowledge on poaching in the last 10 years is biased. There is an imbalance between the developed countries that mostly produce knowledge on poaching (usually from Northern America and Europe) and the developing countries commonly an object of interest. This bias is potentially challenging, as the global scientific knowledge on poaching comes from limited experience based on charismatic species and selective case studies. To overcome this gap and develop a deeper understanding of poaching, the scientific community needs to overcome this bias and address illegal hunting wherever it affects the environment and undermines conservation efforts.

The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of two heavy metals, lead and cadmium, in European hare liver samples, collected in agro biotope of northern Serbian province Vojvodina. Heavy metals such as lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) do not have any biological function in the animal body; however, they can be found due to the pollution in the environment. For the purpose of this study, in 196 samples from 17 different locations hare livers were analyzed for the occurrence of lead and cadmium. All samples were taken from hares harvested during the regular hunting season. The average value for lead in all analyzed samples was 884 µg/kg fresh weight (fw), with the range 59–3700 µg/kg fw. Only samples from two locations had the average concentration of lead which was within the permitted limit by the Serbian regulation. The average cadmium level in all samples was 243 µg/kg fw. The range of all samples was from 0 to 1414 µg/kg fw. Our research indicates that out of two investigated heavy metals, the occurrence of lead is more common and at a higher concentration in the agricultural development region of Vojvodina.

Wild Boar is an autochthonous big game species important for the domestic hunting sector. In the past decades this species is increasing in number across Europe, which influences the extent of crop damages and intensity of the human-wildlife conflict. In this study Wild Boar hunting management was analyzed both at the national and regional level. For that purpose data from management plans of 272 hunting grounds were used. Beside the management plans, this study includes a survey of 377 hunters. The results indicate that Wild Boar population abundance is increasing in the Republic of Serbia, partially because the planned and realized shooting are not harmonized. There are differences in hunting management between the regions of Vojvodina and Central Serbia. The survey has shown that among domestic hunters Wild Boar is a popular game species, especially due to the attractive way of hunting.

Summary: The common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus L. 1758) is an allochtonous game species of great importance to the hunting sector in Serbia. Growing concerns over a decline in its population raise issues about the proper management and hunting of common pheasants. As this research tends to identify the importance of common pheasants to Serbian hunters, the present study is based on a mixed research model combining traditional analyses with social studies on Serbian hunters. The data utilized have been collected from the annual management plans of 272 hunting grounds across Serbia and the interviews with 377 hunters. The results obtained suggest that there are significant differences between the analyzed variables in the management plans examined, which indicates that the pheasant hunting management in Serbia is not harmonized. However, the social studies conducted identify the common pheasant as the most hunted and popular game species with Serbian hunters. Accordingly, the common pheasant hunting and management in Serbia has to be improved in order to meet the hunters’ expectations and ensure their satisfaction.

Introduction of Canadian provenances of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii Mir / Franco) in Serbia started with the first phase of testing their genetic potential by studying the effects of geographic characteristics of the locations from which the provenances originated (latitude, longitude and altitude) on the variability of the measured seedling properties. In the laboratory of the Institute for Forestry in Belgrade, germinability of Douglas-fir seeds was tested on the germination table ("Copenhagen table" or "Jakobson table") by the standards of ISTA. The analysis of variance and the regression and correlation analysis were applied in the study of the effects of geographic parameters of Canadian provenance locations on the variability of seedlings. The results show that there is a statistically significant effect of the provenance latitude on the length of seedlings. The effect of altitude is slightly smaller, while the longitude of the provenance location has the smallest effect on the studied property. The study of the variability of Douglas-fir provenances in their juvenile development, as seedlings, is essential for reliable planning and implementation of further tests within pilot projects on allochthonous sites in Serbia.

Research was conducted on the European hare (Lepus europaeus Pall.), one of the most numerous and important small game species both in Europe and in the Republic of Serbia. The aim of the research was to examine the possibility of modifying the standard method, which is a standard in the Republic of Serbia, for determining the age of hares based on the mass of their lenses in order to shorten its duration. Additionally, the goal was to investigate whether there was a difference in the age structure determined by the standard and modified methods. For the purpose of processing and analyzing samples, a total of 410 hare heads were collected from hunting grounds in Central Serbia and Vojvodina, and only heads with intact lenses of both eyes (399) were included in the analysis, resulting in the examination of 798 lenses. It was determined that there was no statistically significant difference in the lens mass between the standard and modified methods, both for age categories of hares up to one year and over one year. High correlation coefficients were found, indicating a strong relationship between the lens mass obtained by the standard and modified methods within both age categories. Furthermore, the real growth rates of hares determined by the standard and modified methods were equal.