Golden jackal

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Golden jackal
Golden jackal (Canis aureus)

Golden jackal ( Canis aureus )

Systematics
Order : Predators (Carnivora)
Subordination : Canine (Caniformia)
Family : Dogs (Canidae)
Tribe : Real dogs (Canini)
Genre : Wolf and jackal species ( Canis )
Type : Golden jackal
Scientific name
Canis aureus
Linnaeus , 1758

The golden jackal ( Canis aureus ) is a closely related to the wolf related type of dog . He is the only jackal that is common in Europe . Until a few years ago, a close African relative that is native to Egypt and Libya was listed as the subspecies Canis aureus lupaster , but has now been recognized as a separate species with the German name African gold wolf ( Canis anthus ).

features

The golden jackal is between 80 and 95 cm long; its tail length is 20 to 30 cm and the shoulder height about 35 to 50 cm. He weighs about 8 to 10 kg. The fur is usually golden yellow, but there are regional differences. Golden jackals living in the mountains have a rather gray coat.

habitat

Distribution area of ​​the golden jackal in Europe and Asia
Distribution area and sightings of the golden jackal in Europe (as of 2015)

The golden jackal prefers open landscapes as a habitat . The animals inhabit the savannah as well as semi-deserts and rocky areas. But they are absent in dense forests. In some areas they do not shy away from the proximity of human settlements. It is particularly common in the Middle East , India, and some other regions of Asia .

Besides the wolf, the golden jackal is the only representative of the genus Canis that lives on the European continent. Its main distribution area in Europe is the Balkans . You can find populations in northern Greece , in Albania , Romania , Bulgaria as well as in Serbia , Slovenia , Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia .

The golden jackal is currently spreading north and west. It is more often seen in areas where it was previously not native, so for example, from the late 20th century in the area of Trieste in Italy and in Hungary , where the population size increased rapidly. Hungarian wildlife conservationists assume that several hundred golden jackals now live in the forests around Budapest . (As of February 2016). It was first sighted in Austria in 1987 in Styria , and the first offspring were recorded in the Neusiedler See area in 2007. The golden jackal is now native to Upper Austria and north-eastern Italy (as far as the Val di Non and the Vinschgau ).

Animals have also been sighted in Germany (from 1998) and Switzerland (from 2011) (Brandenburg, Bavaria, Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein, Thuringia, Western Pomerania, Saxony, Lower Saxony, in the cantons of Bern , Vaud , Freiburg , Graubünden , Schwyz , Ticino and St. Gallen ). There were also sightings in the Netherlands . In addition to this westernmost evidence, the northernmost observation sites were in Estonia and Denmark . He was spotted for the first time in Finland in July 2019 .

Earlier reports from the area of Lake Neusiedl in Austria, in which the species was referred to as "Rohrwolf", have repeatedly been assessed as historical evidence of a northern autochthonous population. According to more recent findings, however, a historical occurrence here seems unlikely, and the information is probably based on incorrect determinations and mix-ups.

The population in Europe is estimated by the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe (LCIE) at 97,000 to 117,000 animals.

Way of life

The golden jackal often hunts alone, occasionally in pairs, but rarely in packs. Typically an area is roamed at a moderate pace. If the jackal has discovered a prey, it sneaks up in a crouch and tries to reach the prey in a short sprint. The animals live solitary or in pairs, with the latter often joining young animals from the last litter, creating a small family herd . They live locally and have a fixed territory that is between one and 20 square kilometers, depending on the food available, and is marked with urine by all group members . However, there is hardly any fighting between unfamiliar animals, since most of the arguments are dealt with by threatening gestures .

Jackals communicate with one another with a whole series of whimpering, howling and barking sounds .

The life expectancy is eight years in the wild, in captivity up to 14 years.

Reproduction

Golden jackals have a kind of “permanent marriage”. The reproduction takes place in October during the dry season. After a 60 day gestation period, the female looks for a suitable den for her offspring and gives birth to a litter of six to nine pups. These are hairy from birth, but completely blind for the first three days.

During the first three weeks, they are fed exclusively on breast milk . In the following rainy season there is usually enough food to provide the young with solid food. The parent animals transport the food in their stomachs and choke it up again in the cave. It usually takes another five weeks for the puppies to be weaned from their mother's milk. Many young jackals drown as a result of cave flooding during the rainy season.

Only after five to six months are the young no longer dependent on their parents. However, sometimes one or two young stay with their parents to help raise the next litter. These then take turns with the parents in guarding the cave and bringing in the food. Jackals only become fully sexually mature after 20 months.

Food and hunting

Golden jackal

Golden jackals have a typically sociable hunting behavior . They hunt as a couple or in a troop, mostly at night. In the case of individual attackers, 80 percent of all initial attacks fail; in the case of couples, this rate drops to 30 percent. They hardly eat carrion ; rather, they capture most of their food thanks to their good hearing and speed . The way a jackal preyes on a prey is similar to that of the domestic red fox . Like the latter, it pops up its ears, humps a cat , lifts its tail , leaps and lands with its front paws on the prey, which it kills with a strong bite or by shaking it. Large prey are chased to exhaustion until they can be torn down. To do this, the jackal bites its victim's belly.

The diet of the golden jackal includes insects , rodents , birds , amphibians and young gazelles . When he can't fully consume his food, he drags it under bushes or bury it for worse times. In Europe, the supply of food by humans (animal waste) is of great importance and the golden jackal in turn has a high ecological benefit in that it removes this waste.

Competitions

The most dangerous natural enemy of the golden jackal is the wolf . The presence of a pack of wolves in an area often leads to the migration or death of a jackal family. It is believed that there were no jackals at all on European soil in the past. The absence of wolves could favor the further spread of jackals to southern or even central Europe in the near future .

Taxonomy

Phylogenetic system of the genus Canis according to Koepfli et al. 2015
 Canis ,  Lycaon and  Cuon  


 Lycaon pictus (African wild dog)


   

 Cuon alpinus (red dog)


   

 Canis aureus (golden jackal)


   

 Canis simensis (Ethiopian wolf)


   

 Canis anthus  (African gold wolf)


   

 Canis latrans (coyote)


   

 Canis lupus (wolf; + domestic dog )








   

 Canis mesomelas ( black-backed jackal)


   

 Canis adustus (striped jackal)




Template: Klade / Maintenance / Style

Up to twelve subspecies of the golden jackal have been described, but the internal classification of the species has recently been heavily revised on the basis of molecular genetic analyzes. In a study, the Egyptian subspecies ( Canis aureus lupaster ) turned out to be genetically very different from other golden jackals. These jackals, whose resemblance to Indian wolves ( Canis lupus pallipes ) had been noticed by various zoologists as early as the 19th century, are genetically related to wolves . The Egyptian animals are also significantly larger and longer-legged than golden jackals. This Egyptian canid apparently forms a basal branch that is close to the Indian wolf and the Himalayan wolf. In addition to the Egyptian animals, representatives of this species were also discovered in the highlands of Ethiopia 2500 km southeast. This was confirmed after further genetic investigations for all populations that were previously thought to be African subspecies of the golden jackal. Because of their closer relationship with the Eurasian wolf , it has been suggested that these animals be considered as a separate species called the African gold wolf ( Canis anthus ).

protection

In Germany, the golden jackal is not included in the list of huntable species in the Federal Hunting Act § 2 and is therefore not hunted game. The golden jackal is not protected in Austria and can be hunted. In Upper Austria, its distribution area furthest to the west to date, a closed season is anchored in the summer half-year (as of 2007 and 2018) ; it can be shot from October to March.

In Switzerland, too, the golden jackal, like the wolf, but in contrast to the red fox, is not listed among the species that can be hunted, see Article 5 of the Hunting Act. In January 2016, a hunter in the canton of Graubünden accidentally shot a young male golden jackal because he mistook him for the huntable red fox; the hunter then reported himself . The animal was the first Swiss golden jackal whose body could be examined.

Overall, the protected status of the golden jackal in the European countries where it has been observed varies greatly.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Golden Jackal  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Trouwborst, A., Krofel, M. & Linnell, JDC: Legal implications of range expansions in a terrestrial carnivore: the case of the golden jackal ( Canis aureus ) in Europe. Biodivers Conserv (2015) 24: 2593. doi: 10.1007 / s10531-015-0948-y
  2. ↑ Golden Jackal. In: KORA . Retrieved February 23, 2016 .
  3. ↑ László Szabó, Miklós Heltai, Eleonóra Szűcs, József Lanszki, Róbert Lehoczki: Expansion range of the golden jackal in Hungary between 1997 and 2006. In: mammalia. 73, 2009, doi: 10.1515 / MAMM.2009.048 .
  4. ↑ Visszatért Budapest környékére az aranysakál. In: parkerdo.hu. February 16, 2016, Retrieved July 17, 2017 (Hungarian).
  5. ^ A b Maria Hoi-Leitner, Erhard Kraus: The golden jackal Canis aureus (Linnaeus, 1758) in Austria. In: ( Mammalia austriaca 17). Bonn zoological contributions 40 (3/4), 1989, pp. 197-204.
  6. ↑ Andreas Zedrosser: A new species for Austria: The golden jackal (Canis aureus). In: Stapfia 37 (also catalogs of the Upper Austrian State Museum NF. 84), 1995, pp. 237–242, PDF on ZOBODAT
  7. ^ Frank E. Zachos, Franz Suchentrunk: The Golden Jackal - New Citizen with a Migration Background. In: Naturschutzbunt 2, 2013, p. 12 ( pdf , vetmeduni.ac.at).
  8. ↑ Fotografato uno sciacallo dorato in Val di Non. In: grandicarnivori.provincia.tn.it. Autonomous Province of Trento, June 20, 2013, accessed November 14, 2018 (Italian).
  9. ↑ Animals on the Sonnenberg are golden jackals. (No longer available online.) In: Südtirol Online . May 23, 2014, archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; Retrieved July 18, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Run over a rare golden jackal in Switzerland. In: 20min.ch. December 24, 2019, accessed July 12, 2020 .
  11. ↑ a b Monitoring golden jackal. In: kora.ch . Retrieved June 12, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Mysterious wildlife accident: run over a rare golden jackal on the A9. In: sueddeutsche.de. May 23, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2017 . Andreas Nigl: Where did he come from? Jackal roams through the Bavarian Forest. In: Online edition of the Grafenauer Anzeiger . July 6, 2017. Retrieved July 19, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Jackal discovered in Bavaria. In: badische-zeitung.de. July 6, 2012, accessed on August 17, 2019 (registration required).
  14. ↑ Golden jackal on the approach: He has already been sighted in Central Hesse. In: Rhein-Zeitung . March 6, 2019, accessed on March 7, 2019 : "At Schlitz in Central Hesse , a hunter already photographed a golden jackal (Canis aureus) in 2015."
  15. ↑ Torn three sheep in Dithmarschen: first golden jackal detected in Schleswig-Holstein. In: shz.de . May 23, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Golden jackal sighted for the first time in Thuringia. Retrieved August 16, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Petra Hase: Greifswald - Wolf turns out to be a golden jackal. In: ostsee-zeitung.de. May 21, 2016, accessed April 21, 2019 .
  18. ↑ mdr.de: Golden jackal gropes in photo trap in Upper Lusatia | MDR.DE. Retrieved August 16, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Golden jackals "present in many places in Lower Saxony". Spektrum.de , June 4, 2020, accessed on June 10, 2020 .
  20. ↑ SDA: A jackal roams the Alps. In: Tages-Anzeiger. September 8, 2012, accessed February 23, 2016 .
  21. ↑ Amanda Buol: Weakened golden jackal killed in Schwyz. In: naturschutz.ch. March 24, 2016. Retrieved March 24, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Golden jackal sighted for the first time in Ticino. Retrieved April 21, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Golden jackal observed in the Linth area. In: sg.ch. Canton of St. Gallen, July 18, 2017, accessed on December 11, 2018 .
  24. ↑ Jakhals waargenomen op de Veluwe. In: nu.nl . February 29, 2016, accessed May 13, 2020 (Dutch).
  25. ↑ European jackal found in Denmark. In: The Post. September 10, 2015, accessed February 23, 2016 .
  26. ^ Anne-Pauliina Rytkönen: Suomessa on tehty ensimmäinen vahvistettu sakaalihavainto - ”Eurooppalaiset tutkijat tunnistivat välittömästi”. In: yle.fi. July 25, 2019, accessed December 15, 2019 (Finnish).
  27. ↑ Golden jackal - Canis aureus. In: lcie.org. Retrieved September 11, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Duško Ćirović, Aleksandra Penezić, Miha Krofel: Jackals as cleaners: Ecosystem services provided by a mesocarnivore in human-dominated landscapes. In: Biological Conservation, Volume 199, July 2016, pp. 51–55. doi: 10.1016 / j.biocon.2016.04.027 , ( Online pdf 325 kB .)
  29. ↑ Miha Krofel, Giorgos Giannatos, Duško Ćirovič, Stoyan Stoyanov, Thomas M. Newsome: Golden jackal expansion in Europe: a case of mesopredator release triggered by continent-wide wolf persecution? In: Hystrix 28 (1) pp. 9–15, March 2017, doi: 10.4404 / hystrix – 28.1-11819 , ( Online, pdf 4.9 MB, open access )
  30. ↑ a b Klaus-Peter Koepfli, John Pollinger, Raquel Godinho, Jacqueline Robinson, Amanda Lea, Sarah Hendricks, Rena M. Schweizer, Olaf Thalmann, Pedro Silva, Zhenxin Fan, Andrey A. Yurchenko, Pavel Dobrynin, Alexey Makunin, James A. . Cahill, Beth Shapiro, Francisco Álvares, José C. Brito, Eli Geffen, Jennifer A. Leonard, Kristofer M. Helgen, Warren E. Johnson, Stephen J. O'Brien, Blaire Van Valkenburgh, Robert K. Wayne: Genome- wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species. In: Current Biology. 2015, doi: 10.1016 / j.cub.2015.06.060 .
  31. ^ Sillero-Zubiri, C. (2009). Family Canidae (Dogs). (352-447). In: Wilson, DE, Mittermeier, RA, (Eds.). Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 1: Carnivores. Lynx Edicions, 2009. ISBN 978-84-96553-49-1
  32. ↑ Eli Knispel Rueness, Maria Gulbrandsen Asmyhr, Claudio Sillero-Zubiri, David W. Macdonald, Afework Bekele, Anagaw Atickem, Nils Chr. Stenseth: The Cryptic African Wolf: Canis aureus lupaster Is Not a Golden Jackal and Is Not Endemic to Egypt. In: PLoS ONE. Volume 6, No. 1, 2011, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0016385
  33. ↑ "New" wolf species discovered! On: Wissenschaft.de from July 30, 2015, accessed on September 9, 2019
  34. ↑ Federal Hunting Act (as amended online)
  35. ^ Ordinance of the Upper Austria. State government on the closed seasons for huntable animals (Upper Austrian Closed Seasons Ordinance 2007) StF: LGBl. 72/2007 (as amended online, ris.bka ).
  36. ↑ Killed two golden jackals at Pucking. In: orf.at . October 15, 2018, accessed October 15, 2018.
  37. ↑ Federal Act on Hunting and the Protection of Wild Mammals and Birds (Hunting Act, JSG). dated June 20, 1986 (as of May 1, 2017). In: admin.ch. Swiss Federal Council, accessed on August 1, 2017 .
  38. ↑ Graubünden: Hunter accidentally shoots golden jackal. In: 20min.ch. January 13, 2016, accessed December 5, 2018 .
  39. ↑ Arie Trouwborst, Miha Krofel, John DC Linnell: Legal implications of range expansions in a terrestrial carnivore: the case of the golden jackal (Canis aureus) in Europe. In: Biodiversity and Conservation. Vol. 10 2015, pp. 2593-2610, doi: 10.1007 / s10531-015-0948-y .