At the beginning of the 20th century, the western capercaillie was much more widespread in Croatia than it is today. The western capercaillie is a species of mountain bird from the Ice Age, that has been protected in the Republic of Croatia since 2005.
Breeding of western capercaillie was launched in 2012 when the Animal Protection Association “Tetrijeb” from Prezid acquired a parent flock – two males and three females and built two aviaries for breeding birds on a Farjev laz area.
Farjev Laz is the area where the Counts of Ghyczy had their summer residence. They would often host high-status hunters from Austria who came to hunt western capercaillie. Today, the foundations of the horse stables remain there, while the remains of a wine cellar and the foundations of a house can be found nearby on a forest road. Farjev Laz is also known for its abundant spring water.
In 2014, a project was launched in which a multi-layer incubator was purchased, a monitoring and control system was installed, and cooperation was also established with the Faculty of Forestry and Veterinary Medicine of the University of Zagreb and the then Ministry of Nature Protection and Energy.
In 2015, the construction of a large aviary measuring 72m x 72m and 4-8m high was completed for the release of reared western capercaillie individuals, which is equipped with automatic feeders and video surveillance to enable the birds to prepare for independent life without human presence.
All this led to the opening of the Central European Breeding Center “Tetrijeb” in 2019 whose goal is to repopulate and revitalize the western capercaillie in areas where the species has been recently lost.
In addition to the repopulation of western capercaillie, the tourist offers of Primorsko – goranska County has also been enriched. The Capercaillie Breeding Center “Tetrijeb” in Prezid has a unique tourist offer of photographing these birds.
Today, this Center is managed by the Croatian Hunting Federation.
