Special Nature Reserve “Lake Ludas”

The alluvial basin of Lake Ludas occupies the sandy terrain between the Danube and the Tisa, at the borderline of the Bačka loess plateau; it is 4.5 km long and covers 328 hectares. The low and wide northern coast of the lake is swampy, while the narrow southern coast is submerged into loess and towers 3-4 metres above lake surface. The maximum depth of the Lake is 2.25 m, though in most places it does not exceed 1 m. Shallow water may be frozen for even more than three months a year, and in summer water temperature may rise to 30 degrees Centigrade.

Before water system regulation was introduced, the Lake used to be swampy – marshy land with alkaline water. The Kireš streamlet, along with water streams around Čurgo, supplied the Lake with fresh water. Today, beside precipitation and underground water sources, the Lake also gets water from the Palic-Ludas and Bega canals, while superfluent water flows away through the Kireš into the Tisa.

Special Nature Reserve “Lake Ludas”, covering an area of 633 ha, is located at the very north of Serbia, in Voivodina, on the territory of the aMunicipality of Subotica. The first decree to protect Lake Ludas was passed in 1955. Since 1989 Lake Ludas has been treated as an area of international importance to birds (IBA N° 33) (539 ha). Most of the Nature Reserve is covered by the Lake itself. Ludas is a typical Pannonian steppe lake with alkalic water and significant annual water level fluctuations, even occasional dry- ups in the shallower parts of the basin. As a shallow lake with pronounced bioproduction it belongs to the group of eutrophic waters.

Apart from the Lake itself, Special Nature Reserve “Lake Ludas” streches across 800 hectares and covers the surrounding swampy areas as well. It belongs under the authority of “Palić-Ludas” Public Utility Company.