BAM in the Karst region, Italian-Slovenian broader activity

On 2nd of June 2015 a bio-acoustic monitoring (BAM) survey was conducted in the Karst region by various Italian and Slovenian members of GOJAGE.  

The survey is part of a BAM study in jackal specific ecological systems started in 2014 with the aim to outline an update picture about number and distribution of jackals groups in the Italian-Slovenian border area. This will be quite important to better understand the dynamics of expansion of the species in Western Europe. Between two and four groups of jackals were found in the area. In Italian side were found 1 territorial group near Doberdò and 1 single animal. In the same area, last year the responses came from 1 territorial group and 3 single. In Slovenia the team got responses from 1 howling group at Opatje Selo. 1 single animal responded at Črnotiče and another 1 single animal was observed at Prešnica. The method used for this period of time do not permit to assess the exactly jackal territorial groups number as the most activity of jackal families with litters is developed near or at the den site. In other different studies, in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece or Croatia when one jackal responded to BAM, it was considered that this is representative for one territorial group, but this assumption could overestimate jackal number in areas with low density.

This jackal population cluster with at least 9-12 jackals found in this region is an important one when considering the possibility of new areas of settlements. In fact, both Italian and Slovenian reproductive groups are probably sources for golden jackal expansion toward the Alps, but data on their situation are still scarce and fragmented, in spite of the long-lasting presence of the golden jackal species in this area.

In this activity participated Marco Pavanello, Luca Lapini, Stefano Pecorella, Andrea Caboni, Miha Krofel, Tomaz Berce, Urša Fležar, Lan Hočevar, Milan Vodnik, Matej Kovačič, Sebastijan Lamut, Janez Tarman and Jasna Mladenovič. Societies and Institutions involved in this research study are: Friulian Museum of Natural History Udine, Therion Research Group Tramonti di Sotto, University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Forestry and NGO Dinaricum.