Reintroductions as a management tool for European Ungulates

It is pretty clear that in Europe there is no more room for further reintroduction of non-endangered species, except in the few countries where ungulates have not yet reached high numbers, like Greece and Portugal. In general in Europe the priority is now constituted by a proper management of the rich resource represented by almost 20 million ungulates rather than by their increase (both in number and distribution). But there should remain two priorities , both related to the need to preserve the local genetic identities of the native ungulate populations with special reference to endemic subspecies: • To restore viable populations (or metapopulations) of native, endangered subspecies within their range and to protect them from the risk of crossbreeding with exotic subspecies ; • To amend, as much as possible, genetically depleted local populations of even common species and subspecies that are now living in simpatry or even crossbreeding with introduced stocks of different origin.