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55-715: The reserve is located in the southwestern Serbia, in the municipalities of Nova Varoš (approximately 2/3) and Sjenica (1/3) in the Zlatibor District . The protected area is elongated and comprises the valley of the Uvac river, including the Uvac Gorge. Geographically, the Uvac valley is part of the Stari Vlah - Raška highland. It is surrounded by the mountains of Zlatar on the west, Murtenica and Čemernica on

110-473: A definition similar to "all theropods closer to birds than to Deinonychus ", with Troodon being sometimes added as a second external specifier in case it is closer to birds than to Deinonychus . Avialae is also occasionally defined as an apomorphy-based clade (that is, one based on physical characteristics). Jacques Gauthier , who named Avialae in 1986, re-defined it in 2001 as all dinosaurs that possessed feathered wings used in flapping flight , and

165-519: A female named Sara, which hatched in Uvac in 2011, was caught and satellite-tagged in Israel in 2012. After reaching sexual maturity, she returned to Serbia in 2017. Tracking devices showed that some birds were flying high up to 10 km (6.2 mi). One male flew north to Poland and got injured there. Polish ambassador transported it back to the Uvac by plane, it was healed and named Uroš the Weak , after

220-442: A group called Paraves . Some basal members of Deinonychosauria, such as Microraptor , have features which may have enabled them to glide or fly. The most basal deinonychosaurs were very small. This evidence raises the possibility that the ancestor of all paravians may have been arboreal , have been able to glide, or both. Unlike Archaeopteryx and the non-avialan feathered dinosaurs, who primarily ate meat, studies suggest that

275-634: A group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves ( Latin: [ˈaveːs] ), characterised by feathers , toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart , and a strong yet lightweight skeleton . Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5.5 cm (2.2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) common ostrich . There are over 11,000 living species and they are split into 44 orders . More than half are passerine or "perching" birds. Birds have wings whose development varies according to species;

330-415: A new study on reserve's protection and sent it to the government. In April 2021 the government announced that the reserve's area will be enlarged, from 75.43 square kilometres (29.12 sq mi) to 117.46 square kilometres (45.35 sq mi). A highest level of protection, level I, will be introduced in some parts. All vessels will have to switch to electric engines. Lake Radoinja will be placed under

385-406: A sister group, the order Crocodilia , contain the only living representatives of the reptile clade Archosauria . During the late 1990s, Aves was most commonly defined phylogenetically as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of modern birds and Archaeopteryx lithographica . However, an earlier definition proposed by Jacques Gauthier gained wide currency in the 21st century, and

440-717: A time, sometimes for years, and rarely for life. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous (one male with many females) or, rarely, polyandrous (one female with many males). Birds produce offspring by laying eggs which are fertilised through sexual reproduction . They are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching. Many species of birds are economically important as food for human consumption and raw material in manufacturing, with domesticated and undomesticated birds being important sources of eggs, meat, and feathers. Songbirds , parrots, and other species are popular as pets. Guano (bird excrement)

495-540: Is called ornithology . Birds are feathered theropod dinosaurs and constitute the only known living dinosaurs . Likewise, birds are considered reptiles in the modern cladistic sense of the term, and their closest living relatives are the crocodilians . Birds are descendants of the primitive avialans (whose members include Archaeopteryx ) which first appeared during the Late Jurassic . According to recent estimates, modern birds ( Neornithes ) evolved in

550-431: Is called the "Castle of griffons". Birds continued to spread and, by 2020, trackers were placed on 327 individual birds, which have been spotted on 4,000 locations in 22 countries. Seven birds have been tracked via satellites. In August 2020, several chicks drowned when a helicopter flew low over the gorge, and scared the birds which jumped into the water. Environmentalist have been warning about this at least since 2018. At

605-553: Is estimated that the Ušak system is 250 million years old, but is still being geologically active. Waters of the Uvac river are used for three hydroelectric power stations within the reserve, each one with an artificial lake: Bistrica with Radoinja Lake (1960), Kokin Brod with Zlatar Lake (1962) and Sjenica with Sjenica Lake (1979). There are 219 plant species in the reserve. Of them, 3 are of international importance, 3 are listed in

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660-429: Is harvested for use as a fertiliser. Birds figure throughout human culture. About 120 to 130 species have become extinct due to human activity since the 17th century, and hundreds more before then. Human activity threatens about 1,200 bird species with extinction, though efforts are underway to protect them. Recreational birdwatching is an important part of the ecotourism industry. The first classification of birds

715-429: Is installed at the feeding ground, recorded the showing of two other vulture species which were extinct from these areas: cinereous vulture and Egyptian vulture . The administration of the reserve, in association with the "Siniša Stanković Institute for Biological Research" and the "Institute for nature conservation of Serbia", wishes to implement the reintroduction project of another vulture species which went extinct in

770-503: Is not considered a direct ancestor of birds, though it is possibly closely related to the true ancestor. Over 40% of key traits found in modern birds evolved during the 60 million year transition from the earliest bird-line archosaurs to the first maniraptoromorphs , i.e. the first dinosaurs closer to living birds than to Tyrannosaurus rex . The loss of osteoderms otherwise common in archosaurs and acquisition of primitive feathers might have occurred early during this phase. After

825-516: Is synonymous to Avifilopluma. † Scansoriopterygidae † Eosinopteryx † Jinfengopteryx † Aurornis † Dromaeosauridae † Troodontidae Avialae Based on fossil and biological evidence, most scientists accept that birds are a specialised subgroup of theropod dinosaurs and, more specifically, members of Maniraptora , a group of theropods which includes dromaeosaurids and oviraptorosaurs , among others. As scientists have discovered more theropods closely related to birds,

880-535: Is used by many scientists including adherents to the PhyloCode . Gauthier defined Aves to include only the crown group of the set of modern birds. This was done by excluding most groups known only from fossils , and assigning them, instead, to the broader group Avialae, on the principle that a clade based on extant species should be limited to those extant species and their closest extinct relatives. Gauthier and de Queiroz identified four different definitions for

935-679: The Bosnian War broke out in 1992, they relocated to Uvac. Situation began to improve when in 1994 the Manastirina feeding ground was established. By 2017, the number of griffon vultures grew to 110 nesting couples and almost 500 birds altogether. That is the largest colony of griffon vultures in the Balkans and one of the largest in Europe , with probably only colony in Spain being larger. As

990-722: The Late Cretaceous and diversified dramatically around the time of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago, which killed off the pterosaurs and all non- ornithuran dinosaurs. Many social species preserve knowledge across generations ( culture ). Birds are social, communicating with visual signals, calls, and songs , and participating in such behaviour as cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking , and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of bird species are socially (but not necessarily sexually) monogamous , usually for one breeding season at

1045-737: The Red list , 25 are placed under the controlled regime of picking and trading and 50 are believed to have medicinal properties. In the Uvac river and its tributaries within the reserve, there are 24 species of fish. Clean water in rivers and reservoirs are natural spawning locations for huchen , brown trout (borth faria and lacustris morphs), brook trout , zander , Mediterranean barbel , common nase and European chub . Mammalian fauna includes wolves , bears , wild boars , foxes , hares , badgers and European pine martens , some of which are declared rare and endangered in Serbia. The main attraction in

1100-669: The Tiaojishan Formation of China, which has been dated to the late Jurassic period ( Oxfordian stage), about 160 million years ago. The avialan species from this time period include Anchiornis huxleyi , Xiaotingia zhengi , and Aurornis xui . The well-known probable early avialan, Archaeopteryx , dates from slightly later Jurassic rocks (about 155 million years old) from Germany . Many of these early avialans shared unusual anatomical features that may be ancestral to modern birds but were later lost during bird evolution. These features include enlarged claws on

1155-409: The coat of arms of Serbia , was patterned after the griffin vulture. However, like in the case several other European coats of arms, eastern imperial eagle was the more probable source. Unlike griffin vultures, there was no attempt at human preservation of eastern imperial eagle population, which by 2018 and full abundance of vultures, was reduced in Serbia to only one nesting couple. The Uvac region

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1210-588: The Municipality of Nova Varoš has 13,507 inhabitants. Population density on the territory of the municipality is 23 inhabitants per square kilometer. In 1991, the population of the municipality was composed of: Serbs and Montenegrins (89.20%), ethnic Muslims (8.51%) and others. In 2002, the population of the municipality was composed of: Serbs (18,001) (90.09%), Bosniaks (1,028) (5.15%), ethnic Muslims (502) (2.51%) and others. Most of those who in 1991 census declared themselves as Muslims by ethnicity , in

1265-428: The appearance of Maniraptoromorpha, the next 40 million years marked a continuous reduction of body size and the accumulation of neotenic (juvenile-like) characteristics. Hypercarnivory became increasingly less common while braincases enlarged and forelimbs became longer. The integument evolved into complex, pennaceous feathers . The oldest known paravian (and probably the earliest avialan) fossils come from

1320-418: The bird is clairvoyant and that it could live for over 500 years. It was described as the go-between for gods, people and underworld, and a just bird which never kills for the fun of it, but only takes what is his. The vulture was believed to be able to predict storms and was not to be harmed or the family of bird's killer will invoke the wrath of gods. Some folklorists believe that Serbian eagle , represented on

1375-509: The birds that descended from them. Despite being currently one of the most widely used, the crown-group definition of Aves has been criticised by some researchers. Lee and Spencer (1997) argued that, contrary to what Gauthier defended, this definition would not increase the stability of the clade and the exact content of Aves will always be uncertain because any defined clade (either crown or not) will have few synapomorphies distinguishing it from its closest relatives. Their alternative definition

1430-665: The earliest members of Aves, is removed from this group, becoming a non-avian dinosaur instead. These proposals have been adopted by many researchers in the field of palaeontology and bird evolution , though the exact definitions applied have been inconsistent. Avialae, initially proposed to replace the traditional fossil content of Aves, is often used synonymously with the vernacular term "bird" by these researchers. † Coelurus † Ornitholestes † Ornithomimosauria † Alvarezsauridae † Oviraptorosauria   Paraves Most researchers define Avialae as branch-based clade, though definitions vary. Many authors have used

1485-451: The first avialans were omnivores . The Late Jurassic Archaeopteryx is well known as one of the first transitional fossils to be found, and it provided support for the theory of evolution in the late 19th century. Archaeopteryx was the first fossil to display both clearly traditional reptilian characteristics—teeth, clawed fingers, and a long, lizard-like tail—as well as wings with flight feathers similar to those of modern birds. It

1540-408: The forcing of the electricity production is part of some scheme, in the case of Uvac, with the companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The EPS refuted these claims, too, saying that in previous periods, and especially in 2000 and 2012, the water level was much lower than today. Still, the company didn't disclose why are they emptying the lake. In 2019, Institute for nature conservation of Serbia drafted

1595-610: The griffon vultures. The touristic guides often divert from the boat touristic routes, bring the tourists closer to the nests and even scare the birds so that they would fly and tourists can photograph them. In 2016/17, of the nests along the boat route, 12 were abandoned, 6 collapsed and from 2 the chicks fell out. Still, the birds got accustomed to the visitors. When tourists visit the lookouts, birds began to fly above, as they are expecting food. The chicks are so well fed, that instead of weighing 8 to 9 kg (18 to 20 lb), some weigh up to 12 to 13 kg (26 to 29 lb) and fall into

1650-445: The lakes. The rangers pick them up and return to the nests, until they lose some weight and learn to fly. In the summer season of 2017 there were 12,000 visitors. By the late 2018 there were almost 150 nesting couples of various vultures, and 600 individual birds. Tracking shows that, on average, one vulture flies for some 40 km (25 mi) daily, in the circling patterns. The massive terrace-like bolder which birds use to take off,

1705-658: The largest cave systems in Serbia. So far, 6,185 m (20,292 ft) of the Ušak Cave system has been explored, which, as of 2017, makes it the third longest cave in Serbia, after the Lazar's Cave and Cerje Cave . The system consists of two caves, Ušak and Ledena (Ice cave), which are connected by the Bezdan pit (The Abyss). Other caves in the reserve include Tubića, Durulja and Baždarska caves. They are all rich in speleothems : stalactites , stalagmitess , drapes and frostwork . It

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1760-547: The last Serbian emperor. He became a touristic attraction. Another celebrity resident was a female named Dobrila. She hatched in 2018 in the Orlovica locality and on her maiden long-distance voyage that same year, she flew to the Turkish-Syrian border where she was found completely exhausted. In the spring of 2019, a special flight was arranged for her and she was transported back to Uvac by the plane. In December 2020 she

1815-409: The late 1940s. Due to the financial difficulties, the project was put on hiatus, though not scrapped. The reintroduction program continued in 2017 within the scope of a wider European program. Among other things, the feeders will be placed along the vultures' migratory route, but the state bureaucracy continued to hamper the project so by 2020 the reintroduction remained on paper only. The camera, which

1870-483: The next census in 2002 declared themselves as Bosniaks, while the smaller number of them still declare themselves as Muslims by ethnicity. Ethnic composition of the municipality according to 2011 and 2022 censuses: Aside from the town of Nova Varoš, the municipality includes the following settlements: The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018): Avifauna Birds are

1925-632: The north of the country the Montenegrin coast. It is situated at 1000 meters above sea level, and below the northern slopes of mountain Zlatar . Nova Varoš is located in the Dinaric mountain range . North of town is mountain Murtenica , while the south mountain Zlatar . Nova Varoš has an oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification : Cfb ). According to the last official census done in 2022,

1980-438: The north, Javor on the east and Jadovnik on the south. The lowest point in the reserve is 760 m (2,490 ft) and the highest 1,322 m (4,337 ft). Central morphological section is actually a canyon-like valley of the river, including the valleys of its tributaries. The river cut its bed deep into the limestone rocks and formed a narrowed gorge-canyon valleys with high and steep limestone cliffs. An average deep of

2035-523: The only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds . Wings, which are modified forelimbs , gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds , including ratites , penguins , and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds , have further evolved for swimming. The study of birds

2090-402: The outermost half) can be seen in the evolution of maniraptoromorphs, and this process culminated in the appearance of the pygostyle , an ossification of fused tail vertebrae. In the late Cretaceous, about 100 million years ago, the ancestors of all modern birds evolved a more open pelvis, allowing them to lay larger eggs compared to body size. Around 95 million years ago, they evolved

2145-547: The population grew, in 2011 it was decided to return some birds to repopulate the Trebinje area again. First specimen were resettled in 2015. The griffon vultures from Uvac roam all over the Europe and Middle East . Birds tagged in Uvac have been spotted in 18 countries, ranging from Spain on the west to Yemen , 4,000 km (2,500 mi) on the southeast. Seven birds have been detected in 2,000 km (1,200 mi) away Israel which later returned to Uvac. For example,

2200-536: The previously clear distinction between non-birds and birds has become blurred. By the 2000s, discoveries in the Liaoning Province of northeast China, which demonstrated many small theropod feathered dinosaurs , contributed to this ambiguity. The consensus view in contemporary palaeontology is that the flying theropods, or avialans , are the closest relatives of the deinonychosaurs , which include dromaeosaurids and troodontids . Together, these form

2255-498: The promotional touristic publications from Serbia. There are 12 arranged lookouts in the gorge. The most popular three are Veliki Krš ("Great Karst "), Veliki Vrh ("Great Peak") and Molitva ("Prayer"). The best known panoramic images of the gorge were made from these three points. The terrain is karst in nature, with numerous karstic features: karst plains , uvalas , sinkholes , caves , pits and rock shelters . Caves are numerous and vary in size, from cavelets to one of

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2310-490: The region, the bearded vulture . Other birds in the protected area include many species of hawks , owls and, especially, eagles: white-tailed eagle , golden eagle , common buzzard and short-toed snake eagle . Uvac is also one of the rare nesting areas of goosander in Serbia and location of the largest recorded population of this bird in the Balkans. In 2017 the environmentalists warned that excessive tourism endangers

2365-469: The reserve is the avifauna , with 172 bird species. The most important inhabitant of Uvac is the griffon vulture , one of two remaining vulture species which nests in Serbia. Large bird, with a wingspan of up to 3 m (9.8 ft), it has a unique place in the ecosystem's food chain as it feeds solely on carcasses, providing the "natural recycling". In the years after the World War II , the species

2420-452: The same biological name "Aves", which is a problem. The authors proposed to reserve the term Aves only for the crown group consisting of the last common ancestor of all living birds and all of its descendants, which corresponds to meaning number 4 below. They assigned other names to the other groups.   Lizards & snakes   Turtles   Crocodiles   Birds Under the fourth definition Archaeopteryx , traditionally considered one of

2475-487: The same time, the pro-government media tycoon Željko Mitrović posted a video of him piloting the helicopter above the Uvac on his Twitter account. This caused a public fervor, but the authorities claimed they have no idea who was flying over. As a result, the government adopted a decision on conditional no-fly zone over the Uvac, and few other protected areas ( Trešnjica , Mileševka). Griffin vulture has its place in cultural, mythological and folk beliefs. People believed that

2530-551: The second toe which may have been held clear of the ground in life, and long feathers or "hind wings" covering the hind limbs and feet, which may have been used in aerial maneuvering. Avialans diversified into a wide variety of forms during the Cretaceous period. Many groups retained primitive characteristics , such as clawed wings and teeth, though the latter were lost independently in a number of avialan groups, including modern birds (Aves). Increasingly stiff tails (especially

2585-462: The site of today's Nova Varoš. It was called Skender-pašina palanka ( Skender-pasha's Palanka ). When it grew to close to 2,000 houses, "a fire broke out and burned the palace to the ground" ( Evliya Çelebi ). Most of the inhabitants stayed there and built a new town which they called Nova Kasaba, which in Serbian means Nova Varoš. Nova Varoš is located in southwest Serbia, the main road that connects

2640-442: The special system of protection, which will include total ban on vessels or swimming. Nova Varo%C5%A1 Nova Varoš ( Serbian Cyrillic : Нова Варош , pronounced [nɔ̂v̞aː v̞ǎːrɔʃ] ) is a town and municipality located in the Zlatibor District of southwestern Serbia . The municipality of Nova Varoš has a population of 13,507, while the town of Nova Varoš itself has a population of 7,542 inhabitants. Nova Varoš

2695-401: The valley is between 200 m (660 ft) and 300 m (980 ft) with the deepest section being 350 m (1,150 ft). The Uvac gorge is especially known for its "pinched" meanders , or meanders which are cut in the canyon-like fashion. Relative height of the meanders reaches some 100 m (330 ft) near the village of Gornje Lopiže . Photos of the meanders are often used in

2750-515: Was declared a protected area in 1971. Today it covers an area of 75.43 km (29.12 sq mi). In 2008, it was voted one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Serbia. In October 2018 the water level in the lake plunged for some 20 m (66 ft) in 20 days, but the level was generally going down for two months. The boats left on shore would get stranded for over 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in) of dry land over night. The water

2805-466: Was developed by Francis Willughby and John Ray in their 1676 volume Ornithologiae . Carl Linnaeus modified that work in 1758 to devise the taxonomic classification system currently in use. Birds are categorised as the biological class Aves in Linnaean taxonomy . Phylogenetic taxonomy places Aves in the clade Theropoda as an infraclass or a subclass, more recently a subclass. Aves and

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2860-461: Was found dead in the reserve, stuck between the four entangled hornbeam canopies. As the population is thriving, there are less and less suitable locations for the nesting in the reserve. In 2009, a project for reintroduction of the griffon vultures to the Stara Planina was prepared. The birds used to live in this area of Eastern Serbia, on the border with Bulgaria , but went extinct in

2915-487: Was founded in the middle of the 16th century. It is associated with the name of Skender Pasha of Genoa . When Skender-pasha, travelling from Bosnia to the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (1530), stopped with his entourage on the plateau below the mountain Zlatar and was delighted with the beauty of this wooded area and the intoxicating smell of pine, he ordered a town to be built there. Settlements soon sprang up on

2970-493: Was on the brink of extinction. In order to save the birds, an area of the Uvac gorge was protected in 1971, but still, number of birds reduced to only 7 in the 1970s and 10 in 1990. At that moment, it appeared that the species will go extinct as it already disappeared from eastern Serbia, Romania , Albania , Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro . There was a flock which dwelled around Trebinje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After

3025-558: Was used by the Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), a state-owned electric utility power company, for enlarged electricity production. In this period, the total length of the lake was shortened from 27 km (17 mi) to 23 km (14 mi). The EPS claimed that this is normal and that it will not harm the wildlife. This coincided with the emptying of other accumulations in protected areas in other parts of Serbia ( Lake Vlasina , Lake Zavoj ). This prompted suspicions that

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