The following habitats are of particular importance in Djerdap National Park: water, namely the Danube and its tributaries; preserved forest habitats, most notably extensive forest complexes which are a precondition for the diversity of animals living in them; meadows; gorges and canyons. The most notable species in these well-preserved habitats are vertebrates, including: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians и fish.
Fauna
The abundance of animals in the National Park is largely due to the well-preserved habitats providing good conditions for the survival of such a large number of animal species.
Mammals
The Djerdap area is inhabited by at least 55 mammal species. This number composes at least a half of the total number of registered mammal species in the territory of Serbia, which designates the area around the Park, as well as the entire region of Carpathian Serbia, as the zone of moderately high and high diversity, as well as the area of exceptional importance for preserving complete mammal fauna in Serbia.
Strictly protected mammal species which inhabit the Park are otter, colourful ferret, lynx, all types of bats, etc. Majority of other species is part of the category ”protected wild species“.
Species which are attractive game are of exceptional importance; therefore, the methods of their protection and usage are regulated by the provisions of the Law on Game and Hunting. Most significant of them are: chamois, European deer, wild boar and roe.
Birds
The richest bird fauna is the one which counts nearly 270 species. Due to diversity of ornythofauna and presence of rare, endangered species, the Djerdap National Park area known as “Djerdap“ is included in the list of significant birds areas – IBA area (Important Birds Areas).
Specially significant bird species for Djerdap include: pygmy cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmаeus), lesser spotted eagle (Aquila pomarina), booted eagle (Hieraeetus pennatus), white-tailed eagle (Haliaеetus albicilla), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), pregreen falcon (Falco pereginus), corncrake (Crex crex), black stork (Ciconia nigra), Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo), Ural owl (Strix uralensis), European scops owl (Otus scops), Alpine swift (Apus melba), red-rumped swallow (Hirundo daurica).
More recently, Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) appears on Štrpce as a species that until 1956 was a regular resident of Djerdap.
Fish
Around 50 fish species are present in the Danube је an its tributaries in the Djerdap National Park area, which only verifies its richness and diversity. Building the hydroelectric power stations “Djerdap 1“ and “Djerdap 2“ in the Danube ceased the migration flows of Black Sea fish wich spawned in the Danube. There was a change to the chemical properties of water, modification to the river bed configuration so that from a fast river, the Danube in the area of Djerdap National Park was turned into a lake. Therefore, certain Black Sea fish disappeared due to mechanical barriers, and some other disappeared for changed made to the living conditions and concurrently the eruption of such population which belong to alien species – silver carp, amur, Prussian carp which were accidentally or purposefully introduced in the Danube.
Most significant fish specias are: catfish (Silurus glanis), perch (Stizostedion lucioperca), yellow walley (Stizostedion volgensis), sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), breаm (Abramis brama), chub (Leuciscus cephalus), common barbel (Barbus barbus), pike (Esox lucius), asp (Aspius aspius), common roach (Rutilus rutilus), blue bream (Abramis ballerus), vimba bream (Vimba vimba). Streber (Zingel streber) and common zingel (Zingel zingel) represent permanently protected species due to their reduced number.
Richness and versatility of fish life of Djerdap are very significant for local population, since fishing has represented the profession of a large number of people ever since the old times and entire families engaged in fishing through generations. Danube fishers used to catch the Black Sea spawning fish, beluga (Huso huso) prior to building the hydroelectric power station, which reached the size even up to 7 m and weight of 1,300 kg, sturgeon (Acipenser guldemstadticolchius) which reached the length even up to 2 m and weight of 50 kg, as well as large samples of sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) weighing up to 15 kg.
Reptiles and amphibians
In the Djerdap National Park area there are registered 13 amphibian species and they are all strictly protected,except for green frogs, according to the Rulebook on the proclamation and protection of strictly protected and protected species of plants, animals and fungi (”Official Gazette of RS“, No 5/10 and 47/11).
In the Djerdap National Park area there are registered 14 reptile species, out of which 9 belong to strictly protected species, according to the Rulebook on the proclamation and protection of strictly protected and protected species of plants, animals and fungi (”Official Gazette of RS“, No 5/10 and 47/11).
Among others, the following significant species belong to this group: Hermann’s tortoise (Testudo hermanni), European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis), European green lizard (Lacerta viridis), horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) – the only poisonous species, Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus), grаss snake (Natrix natrix), fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra), green frog (Pelophylax kl. esculentus), agile frog (Rana dalmatina), European tree frog (Hyla arborea), etc.
Insects
In terms of insects, the best explored fauna concerns daytime butterflies. There are over 100 butterfly species recorded, which is, inter alia, the reason why Djerdap is categorised as an internationally important butterfly area for daytime butterflies – PBA area (Prime Byterfly Areas).
