130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

3.10. Golden jackal
Canis aureus
Summary
The Golden jackal is a resilient, adaptable and
opportunistic species with a varied history in
Europe. Pronounced declines occurred in the
first half of the 20 th century due to habitat change
and human persecution. Over the last century,
however, local colonisations and extinctions have
led to changes in distribution and abundance.
Factors that have been particularly beneficial in
the recovery of the jackal are legal protection,
decreased hunting pressure due to the prohibition
of poisoning and leg hold traps, increase in food
availability, habitat change, competitor reduction
and favourable climate change and species characteristics.
Background
General description of the species
The Golden jackal (Canis aureus) is a territorial
canid of medium size [1] , which may be nocturnal
to avoid humans [2, 3] , although it is now often seen
in inhabited areas, e.g. in Greece and Hungary [4] .
Despite showing a preference for small mammals,
the jackal is an omnivorous, generalist and opportunistic
forager [1] , and diet varies with location
depending on available food items and human
presence [5] . Near human habitation, the species
feeds almost exclusively on rubbish and human
waste [2] . The basic social unit is the monogamous
pair but social organisation is flexible [1] and
cooperative hunting and care of young has been
observed [2] . The maximum group size is around
30, but families of five are more common [2] . One
to nine pups are born after a two month gestation
period, reaching sexual maturity at 11 months. The
jackal can live up to eight years in the wild [2] .
Distribution in Europe
With a distribution from Cambodia across southern
Asia to the outer Arabic peninsula, Turkey to
Greece, the Balkans and Romania, and Africa as far
south as Senegal and Tanzania [6] , the jackal is the
most widespread of the carnivores. Within Europe,
its distribution is patchy and fragmented with the
highest concentration in the Balkan Peninsula [7] .
It is also present in southern eastern Europe and
Greece to the Black Sea coast, with a northern
boundary in Hungary [8] , and along the Danube,
Romania and former Yugoslavia [7] , and vagrant
individuals occur in Austria and Slovakia [4] .
The species is believed to have appeared
in Europe in the Upper Holocene (Greek
Neolithic) [9, 10] . Because Balkan jackals differ
from their African counterparts, the species
may have come from the East, possibly from the
Caucasus via a land bridge between the Balkans
and Anatolia during the Würm [11] . Pronounced
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