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48-874: The Axios Delta National Park consists of the Axios riverbed and delta , the Haliacmon delta, the Kalochori lagoon , the Alyki Kitrous lagoon, the Nea Agathoupoli wetland , the Gallikos river estuary and the mouth of the Loudias river. It is located in Central Macedonia , and it lies within five regional units : Pieria , Imathia , Pella , Kilkis and Thessaloniki . In the latter,

96-625: A domestic state. Such observations can provide useful information for the stock breeders or other owners of the domesticated conspecifics (i.e. animals of the same species). American mustangs have been protected since 1971 in part due to their romance and connection to the history of the American West . A similar situation is that of the Danube Delta horse from the Letea Forest in the Danube Delta . The Romanian government

144-521: A dominant cockerel, several hens, and subordinate cocks. Sometimes the dominant cockerel is designated by a fight between cocks. A feral population can have a significant impact on an ecosystem by predation on vulnerable plants or animals, or by competition with indigenous species. Feral plants and animals constitute a significant share of invasive species , and can be a threat to endangered species . However, they may also replace species lost from an ecosystem on initial human arrival to an area, or increase

192-534: A feral state. However, in places where there are few predators, they may thrive, for example in the case of the Soay sheep . Both goats and sheep were sometimes intentionally released and allowed to go feral on island waypoints frequented by mariners, to serve as a ready food source. The dromedary camel, which has been domesticated for over 3,000 years, will also readily go feral. A substantial population of feral dromedaries, descended from pack animals that escaped in

240-726: A risk that genetically engineered characteristics such as pesticide resistance could be transferred to weed plants. The unintended presence of genetically modified crop plants or of the modified traits in other plants as a result of cross-breeding is known as "adventitious presence (AP)". Certain familiar animals go feral easily and successfully, while others are much less inclined to wander and usually fail promptly outside domestication. Some species will detach readily from humans and pursue their own devices, but do not stray far or spread readily. Others depart and are gone, seeking out new territory or range to exploit and displaying active invasiveness. Whether they leave readily and venture far,

288-511: A similar meaning as) Axios , which may be Thracian and may have meant "not-shining" from PIE * n.-sk(e)i (cf. Avestan axšaēna "dark-coloured"). The oldest known name of the river, Axios , is mentioned by Homer (Il. 21.141, Il. 2.849) as the home of the Paeonians allies of Troy . Pjetër Bogdani would use the form Asi , an earlier Albanian-language name for the river. This same hypothetical Thracian Axio- meaning "dark, not-shining"

336-512: A tremendous momentum and bringing cold conditions to the city of Thessaloniki and the Axios delta. Somewhat similar to the mistral wind of France , it occurs when atmospheric pressure over eastern Europe is higher than over the Aegean Sea , as is often the case in winter. Feral A feral (from Latin fera  'a wild beast') animal or plant is one that lives in

384-578: A zoo nor the white-tailed eagles re-introduced to the UK are regarded as feral. Domesticated plants that revert to wild are referred to as escaped, introduced, naturalized , or sometimes as feral crops. Individual plants are known as volunteers. Large numbers of escaped plants may become a noxious weed . The adaptive and ecological variables seen in plants that go wild closely resemble those of animals. Feral populations of crop plants, along with hybridization between crop plants and their wild relatives, brings

432-583: Is Pharaonic: 651 km. A project worth 17 billion. The Vardaris or Vardarec is a powerful prevailing northerly ravine wind which blows across the river valley in Greece as well as in North Macedonia . At first it descends along the "canal" of the Vardar valley, usually as a breeze. When it encounters the high mountains that separate Greece from North Macedonia, it descends the other side, gathering

480-544: Is common in India. Many feral animals can sometimes be captured at little cost and thus constitute a significant resource. Throughout most of Polynesia and Melanesia feral pigs constitute the primary sources of animal protein. Prior to the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 , American mustangs were routinely captured and sold for horsemeat. In Australia, feral goats, pigs, horses, and dromedaries are harvested for

528-466: Is considering the protection of the feral horses and transforming them into a tourist attraction, after it first approved the killing of the entire population. Due to the intervention of numerous organizations and widespread popular disapproval of the Romanians the horses have been saved, but still have an uncertain fate as their legal status is unclear and local people continue to claim the right to use

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576-717: Is home to 19 species of reptiles , 8 of which are snakes , 6 are lizards , 2 are terrapins and another 2 are tortoises . Both tortoise species, the Greek tortoise and the Hermann's tortoise , are threatened and listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List . The area of the park which is covered with sand dunes between the Alyki Kitrous lagoon and the Aegean sea has the largest population of Hermann's tortoises in Europe and it

624-477: Is living more or less as a wild animal, or one that is descended from such animals. Other definitions include animals that have changed from being domesticated to being wild, natural, or untamed. Some common examples of animals with feral populations are horses , dogs , goats , cats , rabbits , camels , and pigs . Zoologists generally exclude from the feral category animals that were genuinely wild before they escaped from captivity: neither lions escaped from

672-567: Is the longest river in North Macedonia and a major river in Greece , where it reaches the Aegean Sea at Thessaloniki . It is 388 km (241 mi) long, out of which 76 km (47 mi) are in Greece, and drains an area of around 25,000 km (9,653 sq mi). The maximum depth of the river is 4 m (13 ft). The name Vardar for the river may have been derived from Thracian , although Dardanian , Paeonian , Ancient Macedonian and Ancient Greek were also spoken in

720-679: Is the most densely populated in the world. A total number of 8 species of amphibians have been recorded in the Axios Delta National Park. Some examples are the Balkan frog , the Macedonian crested newt , the European tree frog and the eastern spadefoot . There are at least 38 species of freshwater fish living in the Axios Delta National Park and it is estimated that there are about 20 more saltwater fishes living in

768-647: Is theorized to be found in the name of a city at the mouth of the Danube, called Axiopolis in Greek and Axíopa (perhaps again meaning just "dark water") in Thracian, which may later have been translated into Slavic as Cernavodă , also meaning "black water". The river rises at Vrutok , a few kilometers southwest of Gostivar in North Macedonia. It passes through Gostivar , Skopje and into Veles , crosses

816-582: The American west, they are called mustangs . Other isolated feral populations exist, including the Chincoteague Pony and the Banker horse . They are often referred to as " wild horses ", but this is a misnomer. There are truly "wild" horses that have never been domesticated, most notably Przewalski's horse . While the horse was originally indigenous to North America, the wild ancestor died out at

864-574: The Dalmatian pelican , the greater flamingo , the collared pratincole , the Mediterranean gull , the pygmy cormorant , the Kentish plover , the glossy ibis and the squacco heron . 66% of all the bird species that have been observed in Greece are found at this national park. In the Axios Delta National Park 40 species of mammals have been registered. Some examples are the grey wolf ,

912-507: The Eurasian badger , the European wildcat , the golden jackal , the red fox and the Eurasian otter . The park is also home to 15 species of bats and a number of rodents , like the forest dormouse and the European ground squirrel , which is listed as endangered with extinction by the IUCN in its Red List of Threatened Species . An introduced species, the nutria , is also present in

960-577: The Greek border near Gevgelija , Polykastro and Axioupoli ("town on the Axiós"), before emptying into the Aegean Sea in Central Macedonia , west of Thessaloniki in northern Greece. The river forms a large delta along with Loudias and Haliacmon at the Axios-Loudias-Aliakmonas National Park . The Vardar basin comprises two-thirds of the territory of North Macedonia . The valley features fertile lands in

1008-581: The Polog region, around Gevgelija and in the Thessaloniki regional unit . The river is surrounded by mountains elsewhere. The superhighways Greek National Road 1 in Greece and M1 and E75 run within the valley along the river's entire length to near Skopje. The river was very famous during the Ottoman Empire and remains so in modern-day Turkey as the inspiration for many folk songs, of which

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1056-496: The aurochs , were aggressive, similar to the modern Cape buffalo . Modern cattle, especially those raised on open range, are generally more docile, but when threatened can display aggression. Cattle, particularly those raised for beef , are often allowed to roam quite freely and have established long term independence in Australia , New Zealand and several Pacific Islands along with small populations of semi-feral animals roaming

1104-414: The bird , reptile , and mammal populations. A local population of feral cats living in an urban area and using a common food source is sometimes called a feral cat colony . As feral cats multiply quickly, it is difficult to control their populations. Animal shelters attempt to adopt out feral cats, especially kittens, but often are overwhelmed with sheer numbers and euthanasia is used. In rural areas of

1152-481: The lagoons , forming little islands; common reeds and bulrushes create reedbed habitats; European alders , elms , willows and other trees are part of a forest that protects riverbanks from erosion ; and common purslanes , petty spurges and many more plants thrive at the sand dunes of the park. In the Axios Delta National Park has been recorded an astonishing number of 299 bird species, giving it worldwide ornithological importance. Some of these birds are

1200-399: The mallard duck , wild boar , the rock dove or pigeon, the red junglefowl ( Gallus gallus ) (ancestor of all chickens ), carp , and more recently salmon . Other examples of genetic swamping lie in the breeding history of dingoes . Dingoes are wild true dogs that will interbreed with dogs of other origins, thus leading to the proliferation of dingo hybrids and the possibility of

1248-522: The 19th and early 20th centuries, thrives in the Australian interior today. Water buffalo run rampant in Western and Northern Australia. The Australian government encourages the hunting of feral water buffalo because of their large numbers. Cattle have been domesticated since the neolithic era, but can survive on open range for months or years with little or no supervision. Their ancestors,

1296-637: The Pacific Islands. Pigs were introduced to the Melanesian and Polynesian regions by humans from several thousand to 500 years ago, and to the Americas within the past 500 years. In Australia, domesticated pigs escaped in the 18th century, and now cover 40 percent of Australia, with a population estimated at 30 million. While pigs are thought to have been brought to New Zealand by the original Polynesian settlers, this population had become extinct by

1344-505: The US, excessive numbers of feral cats are often shot. The " trap-neuter-return " method has been used in many locations as an alternative means of managing the feral cat population. The goat is one of the oldest domesticated creatures, yet readily returns to a feral state. Sheep are close contemporaries and cohorts of goats in the history of domestication, but the domestic sheep is vulnerable to predation and injury, and thus rarely seen in

1392-403: The area. It has been living in the park for more than 60 years, after some individuals escaped from a fur farm . Non indigenous are also the Axios horses , a breed of feral horses that is only found in this park. They are the descendants of some horses that were abandoned by the local farmers in the early 60s and since then have been integrated into the ecosystem. The Axios Delta National Park

1440-557: The biodiversity of a human-altered area by being able to survive in it in ways local species cannot. Feral zebu have been reintroduced in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in order to replace their ancestor, the aurochs . Animals of domestic origin sometimes can produce fertile hybrids with native, wild animals which leads to genetic pollution (not a clear term itself) in the naturally evolved wild gene pools, many times threatening rare species with extinction . Cases include

1488-579: The coastal zone of the park. Freshwater species include the Danube barbel and the Rhodeus meridionalis , while some saltwater ones are the Mediterranean killifish and the twait shad . Many invertebrates are found in the Axios Delta National Park, like butterflies , bivalves , beetles , gastropods and dragonflies of numerous species. One of them is Pinna nobilis , a large species of clam which has lost more than 80% of its total population during

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1536-670: The end of the last ice age . In both Australia and the Americas, modern "wild" horses descended from domesticated horses brought by European explorers and settlers that escaped, spread, and thrived. Australia hosts a feral donkey population , as do the Virgin Islands and the American southwest. The pig has established feral populations worldwide, including in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, New Guinea and

1584-427: The export for their meat trade. At certain times, animals were sometimes deliberately left to go feral, typically on islands, in order to be later recovered for profit or food use for travellers (particularly sailors) at the end of a few years. Populations of feral animals present good sources for studies of population dynamics, and especially of ecology and behavior (ethology) in a wide state of species known mainly in

1632-492: The extinction of pure wild dingoes. Researches in Scotland have remarked on a similar phenomenon of the genetic mixing of feral domestic cats and their wild counterparts. Feral animals compete with domestic livestock, and may degrade fences, water sources, and vegetation (by overgrazing or introducing seeds of invasive plants). Although hotly disputed, some cite as an example the competition between feral horses and cattle in

1680-534: The lands drained by the river. The modern Vardar is thought to derive from an earlier * Vardários , which may ultimately derive from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) * (s)wordo-wori- "black water". The name Vardários (Βαρδάριος) was sometimes used by the Ancient Greeks in the 3rd century BC. The same name was widely used in the Byzantine era. Vardar/Vardarios may be a translation of (or otherwise have

1728-630: The largest herds of water buffaloes in Greece lives at the mouth of the Gallikos river in the Axios Delta National Park. Greek buffaloes date back 2,500 years ago and were brought to the country when Xerxes used them to carry his army's supplies across the struma river during the Greco-Persian Wars . Vardar The Vardar ( / ˈ v ɑːr d ɑːr / ; Macedonian : Вардар , Albanian : Vardar/-i , Turkish : Vardar ) or Axios ( Greek : Αξιός , romanized :  Aksiós , Albanian : Asi (historically) )

1776-462: The last decade and it is listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . Along the coastal zone of the Axios Delta National Park, 30,000 tons of mussels of the Mytilus galloprovincialis species are produced each year. That is 80-90% of all mussels produced in Greece and the reason is that the Axios , Haliacmon and Loudias rivers are releasing nutrients in

1824-593: The most famous is Vardar Ovasi. It has also been depicted on the coat of arms of Skopje, which in turn is incorporated in the city's flag. A proposal to construct a canal connecting the Morava river valley with the Vardar, and hence linking the Danube to the Aegean Canal, has been a dream for a long time. Le Figaro published a project of Athens and Belgrade on 28.08.2017. The Greek-Serbian proposal made in Beijing

1872-456: The park's borders extent as near as 10 kilometers from the major city of Thessaloniki . The park lies within the Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests ecoregion and is situated on one of the main migratory routes for birds in Europe . Under the Köppen climate classification the Axios Delta National Park has a cold semi-arid (BSk) climate. The summers are hot and

1920-414: The southwestern United States and northern Mexico . Such cattle are variously called mavericks , scrubbers or cleanskins. Most free roaming cattle, however untamed, are generally too valuable not to be eventually rounded up and recovered in closely settled regions. Horses and donkeys , domesticated about 5000 BCE, are feral in open grasslands worldwide. In Australia , they are known as Brumbies ; in

1968-525: The subject of the documentary film, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill ) being particularly successful outside of their native habitats and adapting well to suburban environments. Wild cocks are derived from domestic chickens ( Gallus gallus domesticus ) who have returned to the wild. Like the red junglefowl (the closest wild relative of domestic chickens), wild cocks will take flight and roost in tall trees and bushes in order to avoid predators at night. Wild cocks typically form social groups composed of,

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2016-533: The time of European colonization, and all feral pigs in New Zealand today are descendants of European stock. Many European wild boar populations are also partially descended from escaped domestic pigs and are thus feral animals within the native range of the ancestral species. Rock doves were formerly kept for their meat or more commonly as racing animals and have established feral populations in cities worldwide. Colonies of honey bees often escape into

2064-539: The ultimate criterion for success is longevity . Persistence depends on their ability to establish themselves and reproduce reliably in the new environment . Neither the duration nor the intensity with which a species has been domesticated offers a useful correlation with its feral potential. The cat returns readily to a feral state if it has not been socialized when young. Feral cats, especially if left to proliferate, are frequently considered to be pests in both rural and urban areas, and may be blamed for devastating

2112-562: The water resulting in faster growth. About 10,000 hectares of rice paddies extend within the Axios Delta National Park, thus occupying almost a third of its area. The rice grown in the park is of the Japonica and the Indica varieties. The second largest salt production facility in Greece is located at the western part of the Alyki Kitrous lagoon . A 400 hectares salt evaporation pond produces 28,000 tons of salt each year. One of

2160-487: The western United States. Another example is of goats competing with cattle in Australia, or goats that degrade trees and vegetation in environmentally-stressed regions of Africa. Accidental crossbreeding by feral animals may result in harm to breeding programs of pedigreed animals; their presence may also excite domestic animals and push them to escape. Feral populations can also pass on transmissible infections to domestic herds. Loss to farmers by aggressive feral dog population

2208-412: The wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species , the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some cases, contributed to extinction of indigenous species . The removal of feral species is a major focus of island restoration . A feral animal is one that has escaped from a domestic or captive status and

2256-470: The wild from managed apiaries when they swarm ; their behavior, however, is no different from their behavior in captivity, unless they breed with other feral honey bees of a different genetic stock, which may lead them to become more docile or more aggressive (see Africanized bees ). Large colonies of feral parrots are present in various parts of the world, with rose-ringed parakeets , monk parakeets and red-masked parakeets (the latter of which became

2304-424: The winters are cold and wet. Extreme weather phenomena are rarely recorded in the park during the winter. Snowfall is infrequent and the waters almost never freeze. Most rains occur in autumn and the park has an average annual precipitation of 442.5 mm (17.4 in ). In the Axios Delta National Park there is a number of 370 plant species and vegetation is present in all of the park. Glassworts cover large parts of

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