SHEEP AND GOATS MORE EFFICIENT IN FIRE PROTECTION THAN CANADAIRS

SPLIT, Dec 24 (Hina) - Goats and sheep are a cheaper and more efficient means of fire prevention than Canadair planes. Experience has shown that fires never occur or are very rare in areas grazed by bovid ruminants, claims Davorin Pamic in an article published in a specialised magazine "Zadrugar". Incompetence, lack of organisation, crime and neglect in once agricultural areas this summer caused 1,118 fires in Croatia's southern region of Dalmatia. Two people were killed and 16,313 hectares of land were ravaged by fire, and damage was estimated at more than 586 million kuna, says Pamic. In 1960, there was one million heads of sheep in Dalmatia, with approximately 2.7 ha of land ravaged in each fire. In 1997, there were 200,000 heads of sheep in the region and each fire consumed an average of 47 ha. These data confirm the invaluable importance of sheep and goats in fire prevention in the Mediterranean area, Pamic says. A Croatian biologist Davor Cukrov offered an interesting proposal on fire prevention on the island of Zlarin, when he bought a 100- head flock in 1995. He has already achieved encouraging results and has called for drawing up a project of fire protection on Croatian islands, based on sheep breeding. (hina) rml