The European jackal (Canis aureus moreoticus) is a subspecies of the golden jackal present in Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Southeast Europe. It was first described by French naturalist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire during the Morea expedition. There were an estimated 70,000 jackals in Europe according to one source; another source gives an estimate of 97,000 to 117,000 individuals. Though mostly found in South-Southeastern Europe, its range has grown to encompass parts of the Baltic in Northeastern Europe, Peep Männil: Läänemaal elab veel vähemalt kaks šaakalit, tõenäoliselt rohkem , Eestielu.ee (3 April 2013) in Eastern Europe (Poland), Southern Europe, mostly in Italy (first observed in 1984),Clementi, Maria. Scoperto in Val Tagliamento lo sciacallo dorato with further sightings in Western Europe (including in France, Germany); several other countries in mainland Europe have reported the jackals as vagrants. One theory, which has been set forth to explain the rapid spread of the species since the 1970s to colonise European areas in which they were perhaps likely never historically native, is that grey wolf populations are less abundant than in the historic past.
Etymology The use of the word jackal travelled from the Sanskrit term शृगाल (śṛgāla), which means "the howler", to the Persian شغال (šaġāl), then the Ottoman Turkish چقال (çakâl) and from the Ottoman expansion in eastern Europe to several European languages. Pre and non Ottoman names that were used in European languages where the European jackal was present, were θως (thos), λυκοπάνθηρ (lycopanther), and σκυλάκι (squilachi) in Greek, hilac and lupul de stuf in Romanian, nádifarkas in Hungarian and Rohrwolf in Austrian/German.Gasteratos, I.; Fondoulakou, Z.; Kominos, T.; Galanaki, A. (2022). On the past distribution of the Golden Jackal Canis aureus in Greece (until 1970). Third International Jackal Symposium. Gödöllő, Hungary.Belon, P. 1554: Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, et autres pays estranges.Éhik, Gy. Sakál vagy nádifarkas hazánkból (Jackal or reed-wolf from Hungary). 1937-38. vol. 31, pp. 11-15Discover Danube Delta. The Golden Jackal (Canis aureus moreoticus) The names "lupul de stuf", "nádifarkas" and "Rohrwolf" translete as reed wolf and though there has been some confusion about its identification as a grey wolf subspecies or a golden jackal, as Éhik mentioned clearly, already in 1938: The reed-wolf can not be a subspecies of Canis lupus, because the latter was allways occuring (and also bearing!) in the Great Hungarian Plains and two subspecies can not live at the same time on the same territory.
Physical description The European subspecies, consistent with Bergmann's rule, is the largest of the golden jackals, with animals of both sexes measuring 120–125 cm (47–49 in) in total length and 10–13 kg (20–29 lb) in body weight.Giannatos, G. (2004), Conservation Action Plan for the golden jackal Canis aureus L. in Greece, WWF Greece. Athens, Greece. pp. 47 One adult male in North-Eastern Italy is recorded to have reached 14.9 kg (33 lb). Lapini, L. (2003). Canis aureus (Linnaeus, 1758). In: Boitani L., Lovari S. & Vigna Taglianti A. (eds.) Fauna d’Italia. Mammalia III. Carnivora-Artiodactyla. Calderini publ., Bologna, pp. 47–58 The fur is coarse, and is generally brightly coloured with blackish tones on the back. The thighs, upper legs, ears and forehead are bright reddish chestnut.Heptner, V. & Naumov, N. P. (1988), Mammals of the Soviet Union Vol.II Part 1a, Sirenia and Carnivora (Sea cows; Wolves and Bears), Science Publishers, Inc. USA. pp. 129-164, Jackals in Northern Dalmatia have broader than average skulls, which is thought to result from human induced isolation from other populations, thus resulting in a new morphotype.
Diet In the Caucasus, jackals mainly hunt hares, small rodents, pheasants, partridges, ducks, coots, moorhens and passerines. They readily eat lizards, snakes, frogs, fish, molluscs and insects. During the winter period, they will kill many nutrias and waterfowl. During such times, jackals will surplus kill and cache what they do not eat. Jackals will feed on fruits, such as pears, hawthorn, dogwood and the cones of common medlars. Golden jackals tend not to be as damaging to livestock as wolves and red foxes are, though they can become a serious nuisance to small sized stock when in high numbers. The highest number of livestock damages occurred in southern Bulgaria: 1,053 attacks on small stock, mainly sheep and lambs, were recorded between 1982 and 1987, along with some damages to newborn deer in game farms.
In Greece, rodents, insects, carrion, and fruits comprise the jackal's diet. However, they rarely eat garbage, due to large numbers of stray dogs preventing them access to places with high human density. Jackals in Turkey have been known to eat the eggs of the endangered green sea-turtle. In Hungary, their most frequent prey are common voles and bank voles. In Dalmatia, mammals (the majority being even-toed ungulates and lagomorphs) made up 50.3% of the golden jackal's diet, fruit seeds (14% each being common fig and common grape vine, while 4.6% are Juniperus oxycedrus) and vegetables 34.1%, insects (16% orthoptera, 12% beetles, and 3% dictyoptera) 29.5%, birds and their eggs 24.8%, artificial food 24%, and branches, leaves, and grass 24%. Information on the diet of jackals in northeastern Italy is scant, but it is certain that they prey on small roe deer and hares.
Distribution The jackal's current European range mostly encompasses the Balkan region, where the population had been reduced in many areas by the 1960s, with core populations occurring in scattered regions such as Strandja, the Dalmatian Coast, while it was still very numerous and widespread at the lowlands of mainland Greece and some Greek Islands, in the beginning of the decade. It recolonised its former territories in Bulgaria during 1962, following legislative protection. Subsequently, from the 1980s onward, expanded its range westward into Serbia, Slovenia, Austria and Italy, and as far North as Northwestern Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.
The golden jackal is listed as an Annex V species in the EU Habitats Directive and as such may be hunted or killed in Estonia, Greece and all other EU member states, should these states allow this based on their own laws, but the population must be monitored and submitted to the European Commission every six years.
In Turkey, Romania, the North Black Sea coast, and the Caucasus region, the status of jackals was largely unknown in 2004. There were indications of expanding populations in Romania and the north-western Black Sea coast, and reports of decline in Turkey.
Balkans and further East Jackal populations in Albania however till recently were on the verge of extinction with possible occurrence in only three lowland wetland locations along the Adriatic Sea.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, jackals were a rare species. From 1920 to 1999, only a few observations in the south of the country. However, at the beginning of this century, their significant presence in the north of the country is an obvious example of expansion of the jackals on the European continent.
Bulgaria has the largest jackal population in Europe, which went through a 33–fold increase in range from the early-1960s to mid-1980s. Factors aiding this increase include the replacement of natural forests with dense scrub, an increase in animal carcasses from state game farms, reductions in wolf populations and the abandonment of poisoning campaigns. In the early 1990s, it was estimated that up to 5,000 jackals populated Bulgaria. The population increased in 1994, and appears to have stabilised.Giannatos, G., 2004. Conservation Action Plan for the golden jackal Canis aureus L. in Greece . WWF Greece. Athens, Greece. pp. 47
In Croatia, a 2007 survey reported 19 jackal packs in the north-western part of Ravni Kotari and two on Vir Island.
In Greece, the golden jackal was at least locally, one of the most common wild mammals, as reported by various sources, during the 18th and the 19th centuries, and the 20th century, till the 1960s. Then, the same period when the recovery began in the nearby Bulgaria, the Greek population collapsed due to intense poison bait campaigns; as of 2000, golden jackals were the rarest of the three wild extant canids there, having disappeared from some islands like Corfu, Lefkada and Euboea and large parts of central Greece, western Greece and, being limited to disjunct, isolated population clusters in Peloponnese, Phocis, Samos Island, Halkidiki and north-eastern Greece. Since around 2010, the species recovered and reappeared over much of its original distribution, even to places where it was not known before. Although listed as 'vulnerable' in the Red Data Book for Greek Vertebrates, the species has neither been officially declared as a game species nor as a protected one.Migli, D., Petridou, M., Giannatos, G. & P. Maragou 2014: Current golden jackal status in Greece - from a low population point to an ongoing recovery. Conference: First International Jackal Symposium: Veliko Gradište, Serbia.Συντιχάκη, Ε., Διαμάντης, Χ., Ηλιόπουλος, Γ., Κόντος, Κ., Μάντος, Α., Μαρτίνης, Α., Μπούκας, Α., Πετρίδου, Μ., Σεληνίδης, Κ., Φιλίππου, Ε. & Θ. Κομηνός 2016: Η ΕΠΑΝΕΜΦΑΝΙΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΤΣΑΚΑΛΙΟΥ (CANIS AUREUS) ΣΤΗ ΘΕΣΠΡΩΤΙΑ. • 8ο Πανελλήνιο Συνέδριο Οικολογίας «150 χρόνια Οικολογίας. Δομές, Δεσμοί, Δυναμικές και Στρατηγικές Επιβίωσης». Α.Π.Θ. Θεσαλλονίκη 20-23/10/2016.Masseti, M. 2010: Homeless mammals from the Ionian and Aegean islands. Bonn zoological Bulletin 57(2): 367-373.Gasteratos, I. & Z. Fondoulakou 2018: The presence and the extinction of the Golden Jackal Canis aureus from the Island of Corfu, northwestern Greece. Conference: 2nd International Jackal Symposium: Marathon, Greece.Kominos, T., Galanaki, A., Bukas, N. & D. Youlatos 2018: Golden jackal (Canis aureus Linnaeus 1758) distribution in western Greece: an update. Conference: 2nd International Jackal Symposium: Marathon, Greece.• Kominos, T., Galanaki, A., Kiamos, N., Bukas, N., Gasteratos, I., Kountouras, S. & G. Giannatos 2022: Past and present of the golden jackal “Canis aureus” in Greece: the evolution of its distribution from the 1970s until today. 3rd International Jackal Symposium. Gödölő, Hungary 2-4/11/2022.Karamanlidis, A.A., Hernando, M., Avgerinou, M., Bogdanowicz, W., Galanis, K., Kalogeropoulou, S., Krambokoukis, L., Panagiotopoulos, N. & C. Taklis 2023: Rapid expansion of the golden jackal in Greece: research, management and conservation priorities. Endangered Species Research 51: 1-13.
Jackal populations have been increasing in Serbia since the late 1970s, and occur mainly in north-eastern Serbia and lower Srem. Jackals are especially common near Negotin and Bela Palanka (close to the border with Bulgaria), where, during the 1990s, about 500 specimens were shot.