The special nature reserve “Uvac“

The special nature reserve "Uvac" represents a natural good of great importance and it is located in the southwest of my country. This reserve is located on an area of 7500 hectares and is surrounded by many mountains, of which the largest are Jadovnik and Javor. The reserve area has a minimum altitude of about 760 meters and a maximum of 1300 meters.
Through the reserve pass the river of the same name, which, as it plunges into limestone pillars, forms canyons and gorge. The depth of the valley ranges from 200 to 300 meters and the largest a depth of 350 meters.
What this region is known for is the river meander, therefore this region is also known as a tourist destination.
Also, many forms of relief are distinguished here, among which the most common are caves. The cave system of this region is as much as 6850 meters long. Since I'm studying at the Faculty of Geography, I am very familiar with this information and I know that they are reliable.
Also, the presence of special bird species makes this destination even more recognizable. There are as many as 130 species of birds and the most unusual are white-headed soup, because they are one of the two types of woodpeckers that have survived in my country.
What is particularly interesting is the return of two other species of leafhoppers to this area, both of black hazel and white bark. In addition to many species of birds and eagles, this area inhabits endangered species such as wolves, foxes, bears, rabbits, wild boar ...

Here is my drawing of this protected area (I used oil on canvas technique) and the text below will also show the steps I worked on, as well as the videos of my work.

The Uvac river

The Uvac river passes through my country, Serbia, and plays a very important role in its development. Her role is reflected in her hydro power plants at Kokin ship and three artificial lakes.
This river springs under one of our biggest mountains, Jadovnik and it has many tributaries. Uvac is the largest tributary of one of the largest rivers of our country, the river Lim, which springs in Montenegro. It also goes through another country in my surroundings, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This river springs at 560 meters above sea level and has a length of 119 kilometers. Uvac has unusual falls and for this reason, the height difference between Uvac and Lim is about 400 meters.

What is interesting is that the river itself was once a border between the two countries, Serbia and Turkey, during the wars of 1912. Prior to that, in the seventeenth century, many walked this way and fled the wars, when the forests were full of the country's defense.

White-headed soup

White-headed soup is a rare bird that inhabits parts of Africa, Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkan and Pyrenees peninsula. It usually takes one place and does not go anywhere, however, when they are younger, they often change habitats. Mostly living on habitats that are open, in mountainous areas or cliffs, or even in the areas of the steppe and half-meadow. To survive, he needs a habitat that is close to water and spent most of the day on the rocks.
This species was before extinction during wars, however, thanks to the protection of this site, these species have been saved. It happened in 1971 and they have been safe since then. However, the problem arose in 1990, when wars broke out again and only 10 individuals survived. Four years later, the situation slowly improved and these individuals are now more than 50 times more represented than at that time.
It's the biggest bird in my country and has a wingspan of up to 3 meters, weighing up to as much as 11 kg.
What was especially interesting to me was that the eggs lay both male and female about 55 days. It takes about 120 days to grow elderly cubs.These birds nest in colonies and nests can be very close to each other.
There are about 130 bird species in the Uvac area, however, this bird is the most important, because it is rarely represented, or only in certain areas. In this area, the number of these animals is slowly increasing and today there are about 500 individuals.

I hope you like my post! :)