in The evening, he cries. If everything is getting dark, he always calls back loudly in the dusk. His body strained to open, the snout, the ears. The Golden Jackal growls, whines and barks often at full throat, like a Wolf.

“Sometimes it sounds like a siren,” says Jennifer Hatlauf from the Institute for wildlife biology and game management, University for soil culture in Vienna. Generally speaking, his voice was higher than that of the wolf. In order to find the whereabouts of the gold Jackal, the wild animal ecologist a Trick and plays it in selected areas through a bullhorn to a tape recording.

117’000 jackals in Europe

“Often, he answers immediately,” explains Hatlauf, the elusive and clandestine immigrants in Austria are explored. But also in Switzerland, there were already several evidence. “For the first Time in 2011, photo flashed him fall in different places in the Swiss North-Western Alps”, says Fridolin Zimmermann from the animal research centre Kora. It was then in this country, photographed in the year 2015 a Golden Jackal. In the Canton of Graubünden, in the South of Disentis.

At first glance, the gold Jackal with his yellowish-grey and dark brindle coat and his flashy white drawing around the neck like a Wolf. However, he is significantly smaller than this, but something bigger than a Fox. Almost in the whole of Europe, the Golden Jackal now on the rise. From the South-Eastern Balkans, he stretches his area of settlement in a natural way to Central Europe. Originally, he lived in many Parts of Arabia, India and the Middle East to Turkey.

But now, experts find more and more traces of time away from his previously presumed distribution area in the West to France and in the North to Estonia and the Netherlands. According to current estimates, the Population is now huge and surpasses that of the wolves seven times. According to the world conservation Union (IUCN), there are in Europe, up to 117’000 gold dragons, but only 17’000 wolves.

In ancient Egypt, the gold has revered the Jackal as a Holy being and the God of the dead Anubis is depicted with the head of a Jackal. Today, you know jackals are most likely to still be of nature films from the African steppe landscape. But in Africa, they are living way has been determined to 2015 as an independent and is now called new gold wolf, because it is used in contrast to the local jackals, genetically close to the Wolf.

monogamous relationship

so far in Switzerland, proven gold jackals are probably on the move. “You Driftin’, to search an area,” says carpenter of Kora. In Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia, the predators were long ago home. In 2007, they had also in Austria and northeast Italy for the first time, Junior. They are all wanders of alone in the country and don’t like about the lynx in Switzerland in the framework of a resettlement project had been suspended.

Has found a male partner, it remains faithful to her. Often both are hunting for, but sometimes in family groups of four to six individuals. Due to the hidden way of life of the mostly night-active predators are hardly noticeable. “They avoid the regions in which the stronger Wolf has already settled, and preferred to rest in a much more structured landscape with good coverage,” says Hatlauf. In some countries, they appear to be quite close to towns.

The Population of the gold-Jackal is in Europe today, nearly seven times as large as those of the wolves.

As omnivorous and Opportunist, he is not picky and eats in addition to berries and Corn, insects, amphibians or fish, also small mammals such as mice. Occasionally, however, there is also rearing of Sheep losses. Thus, genetic analyses in 2017 showed, for example, that in the case of Arosa, a Jackal and a sheep had ripped.

What exactly is on the menu, depends on the offer. A study in Serbia came as a result of the examined stomach contents of 600 animals at the conclusion that it is waste to 70 per cent of the battle, with a further 10 percent rodents, and 8 percent of the Ungulates. “In Switzerland, this would be different,” says carpenter, “because here we have no such illegal landfills.”

If the Jackal is also moving, and pack, is due to the increasing presence of the wolf is uncertain. In addition, urban areas as a habitat to come rather out of the question. But also mountains, long lasting cover at the end of the snow and intensively farmed agricultural areas without cover are not suitable for him.

confusion with Fox

That may spread to a medium-sized Predator in Europe, almost secretly, arouses scientific interest. The tremendous Expansion has environmental consequences? You move locally in the predator-prey relationships? Also, the legal Status will change, perhaps?

so Far, the gold was a Jackal in Switzerland as a non-hunted protected game. So it came to be that 2015 will be refunded a hunter to pass hunting in the Surselva in the Wildhut self-disclosure: Too late, he realized that he had mistakenly shot instead of a Fox, a Jackal. to recognize

in order To potential conflicts such as the Wolf in time, the Viennese researcher Hatlauf the spread of the Golden jackals in Austria. This brings together on the basis of References of hunters, foresters, or from the population the best Heulanimation. She says that it is in Hungary, but also already had occurred, that an animal had responded to the Alarm of an ambulance.

(editing Tamedia)

Created: 23.01.2019, 06:32 PM