Two flocks of sheep and goats are roaming the meadows and hills of the Beckovské skalice nature reserve throughout the season. They extensively graze the meadow habitats, which our colleagues take turns replotting, so that they mosaically graze some of the vegetation and leave some of it.
Extensive grazing is the best way to maintain areas where we can find rare, critically endangered butterflies, which are extremely dependent on specific living conditions.
The goats can also handle shrubs and thistles, helping to bring more light to the site and create the light-shaded leeward habitat that the butterflies need.
After intensive clearing of the meadow habitat from the woody plants at this site, which we carry out annually in winter, we proceeded to grazing. This is the best way to provide butterflies with suitable living conditions.
Within the butterfly habitat we need to make a natural “mess”, to create heterogeneity of areas, a mosaic, because when an area becomes uniform, it is not suitable for the biodiversity attached to it.
We are going to continue both grazing and cleaning the sites in the following seasons.
