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to introduce deer o n Lampedusa. It cannot be exduded that deer could have been
released in a free-ranging state, while man exerted a control on the number of the
animals through justified hunting, as occasion demanded. This cotùd have been
o ne way of simplifYing management problems, considering Lampedusa as a natural
endosure and allowing the deer herds to derive their food supply directly from the
carrying capacity of the environment. O ne canna t overestimate the importance of
islands inhabited by free-ranging populations of herbivores, which represented
living depositari es of animal proteins available at any time along the marine routes
of the Mediterranean sea. Indeed, some of the ungulates most adaptable to peculiar
environmental conditions even of small islands, were brought by sailors and let
loose on islands so that they could breed and provide a stare of fresh meat that
would be readily available for the passengers of ships (Masseti, 1998). This is the
probable explanation for the periodic releasing of wild goats on several
Mediterranean islands sin ce antiquity and even in prehistory. Beyond this peculiar
use ofislands as natural reservoirs offresh meat, in the past centuries the European
nobility often regarded the islands, especially those located near the mainland
coasts, simply as game preserves. Regarding the circum-Sicilian islands, literary
sources report the occurrence of herds of deer on Favignana, in the Egadi
archi pelago, from at least as far back as the beginning of the 18th century (Amico,
1757-1759), whereas gazelles were probably present on Marettimo even earlier,
since the 12th century (cf. Amari and Schapparelli, 1883; Rizzitano, 1994). Even
islands at quite a distance from the mainland coast sometimes became attractive
game parks. Between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the
twentieth, for example, the Fiorentine count Carlo Ginori and the king of Italy,
Emanuele III of Savoy, used to organise regular hunting parties o n the rocky and
inhospitable islet of Montecristo. As already observed, this island was - and still
is - inhabited by wild goats featuring the same phenotypes as the Bezoar goats of
the Aegean islands and southern Anatolia. Before the island became a protected
nature reserve in 1971, the hunting of the Montecristo wild goat had traditionally
provided sport for the Italian leisured dasses.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was made possible by the financial support of the Assessorato Beni
Culturali, Ambientali e Pubblica Istruzione della Regione Siciliana, Soprintendenza
di Agrigento, and by the logistic assistance provided within the context of the
official twining project involving the El Feidja National Park (Tunisia) and the
Riserva Naturale WWF of Monte Arcosu-Monte Lattias (Italy), and by the
Gestione Ex Azienda di Stato per le Foreste Demaniali (A.S.F.D., Italy). Wewould
lil<:e to express our appreciation and gratitude to the following friends and colleagues
for their suggestions and assistance: Ferdinando Ciani, National Focal Point FAO-

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