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Naturalists count over thousand chamois in Tatra Mountains

1,095 chamois were counted by naturalists from the Tatra National Park, situated on the border of Poland and Slovakia, during a joint chamois counting programme. Naturalists suspect that the actual population may be larger, the authorities of the Slovakian side of the park said on Thursday.

“We expected that the summarised data on the population would be higher. Our assumptions are based on year-round observations, which show that the actual state of the chamois population in the Tatra Mountains is slightly higher than it was observed during the count,” Józef Hybler, a zoologist from the Slovak Tatra State Forests (TANAP) said. He explained that on the southern, sunny slopes, chamois often hid from the sun in shaded places, where animals could not be seen, during the counting operation.

Slovak naturalists counted 781 chamois on their side, while 314 chamois were registered on the Polish side.

For comparison, during last year’s autumn count, 983 chamois were accounted for in the entire Tatra Mountains, in autumn of 2018, 1431 chamois were counted.

The chamois counting programme takes place twice a year – in the summer when naturalists can recognise the offspring of chamois, and in the fall – the so-called verification counting. Joint chamois counting actions on both sides of the Tatra Mountains have been carried out since 1957. It is the oldest nature monitoring conducted by two countries simultaneously.

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