The golden jackal "phenomenon" and what is behind it: by the experiences of the first international jackal symposium

Abstract

Golden jackal (Canis aureus) is a widely distributed predator in North and East Africa, middle and South-East part of Asia and South-East Europe. The species disappeared from the most part of its European area by the middle of 20^th century. Our present knowledge is that spreading of the species started from the core populations in the South-East part of Balkan-peninsula in the ‘80s. Spreading changed to expansion in several countries in the Balkans and Central-East-Europe from the millennium. Conflicts between human and the mesocarnivore are common because of the dynamic spreading, real and supposed damages caused by the jackal. The Authors summarize the latest results and experiences of golden jackal research by the presentations of the First International Jackal Symposium was held in Serbia in 2014: (1) golden jackal initially re-colonized its former territories in Europe in the last two decades, the size of population is increasing extremely fast in most countries; (2) the population density shows significant differences, it can reach extreme high values locally (2–3 groups/10 km²); (3) the increase of the population is influenced by the large quantity of available anthropogenic food resources; (4) golden jackal is regarded as a pest species in most countries despite the fact that feeding habit studies cannot confirm the significant negative influence neither on big game or pastured domestic animal populations; (5) molecular genetic studies of golden jackal populations show high correspondence in Europe (6) the latest distribution results in Central-Europe and East-Europe are based on different core populations and (7) hybridization of jackal and dog is proved in the wild; (8) intensive spreading also raise animal and human health questions.