Zasavica - a journey through this unusual ecosystem

It is home to hundreds of birds, animals and fishes. This reserve is inhabited by Umbra fish, and since 2004 by beaver families, which were exterminated about a hundred years ago throughout the country. In 2005, the Natural History Museum in Munich donated 16 beaver families - some families already built their own homes - on and under water. The presence of a beaver is monitored based on felled trees and the dam it builds. A facility for visitors has been built in Zasavica - since the beaver returned, camps for naturalists from Serbia and several European countries have been held.

Do you know that Zasavica is also the name of an abandoned riverbed?

In the central part of the reserve, in the region of the villages of Ravnje, Zasavica and Salas Nocajski, the border covers the Ramsar area, that encompasses the river, extending to the coast, includes forests and fields along Bostanište and forests on Vrbovac, imposing pasture Valjevac, as well as coastal reeds, fields and forests of Sadžak.

The area is dominated by a river ecosystem. Aquatic and wetland ecosystems with fragments of floodplain meadows and forests alternate in the ecological sequence. Zasavica is supplied with underground water from the Drina river and from the mountain Cer. It belongs to the Black Sea basin and is one of the last originally preserved wetlands in Serbia. So far, more than 600 species of plants have been found, of which Aldrovanda stands out, which has been considered an extinct species in Serbia for two decades.

Zasavica is the only habitat in Serbia for 16 animal species from the groups Hydroacarina, Ostracoda, Rotatoria, Curculionidae, 25 species of fish, of which brownfish stand out. A fish that does not grow more than 12 cm but is able to survive on dry land! Zasavica is an important area for the survival of rare animal species, castor fiber beaver, Umbra krameri and Phalacrocorax pygmeus, in an unfavorable period of the life cycle.

Zasavica is the largest dairy donkey farm in this part of Europe. Donkey's milk cheese is the most expensive in the world, and there is also a whole cosmetic "line" made from donkey's milk. A special attraction of Zasavica is the small bird, the marsh tit, and the way it builds its nest. The male is in charge of making the nest. When it is finished, the female returns to a "control" and if she doesn't like it, she knocks down the nest with her beak, and the male has no choice but to start from scratch.

The social and cultural life of the local population in the settlements around Zasavica takes place in conjunction with the ecological character of this area. The life of the people in this area is connected to wetlands, primarily through fishing and cattle breeding, and dates back to the past.