Up to date situation of the golden jackal distribution in Italy, 2019

Nuove Presenze, problemi vecchi: il caso dello sciacallo dorato (Canis aureus) in Italia (here)

di Luca LAPINI

luca.lapini@comune.udine.it
Museo Friulano di Storia Naturale
Via Sabbadini 32, I-33100 UDINE

L’espansione dello sciacallo dorato in Italia sembra comunque aver attraversato tre fasi differenti.

–Prima fase (1984-1996): caratterizzata da discreto dinamismo, ha portato ad una prima segnalazione nel Veneto Prealpino, ad alcuni eventi di riproduzione nelle Province di Udine e Belluno e alla colonizzazione del Carso Isontino (Lapini et al., 2018).

–Seconda fase (1997-2008): caratterizzata da una evidente stasi dell’espansione e da una forte riduzione delle presenze complessive, ha comunque portato ad una prima riproduzione nel Muggesano (Istria settentrionale, Provincia di Trieste) e nelle valli del Natisone (Prealpi Giulie, Provincia di Udine), con presenze sempre più diffuse sul Carso Isontino (Provincia di Gorizia) (Lapini et al., 2018).

–Terza fase (2009-2018): periodo di fortissima espansione, distinto da un ulteriore successo riproduttivo nel Veneto alpino (Provincia di Belluno), da vari episodi riproduttivi in Carnia (Prealpi Carniche, Provincia di Udine) e in Alto Adige (Provincia di Bolzano), nelle Valli del Natisone (Prealpi Giulie, Provincia di Udine), sul Carso Isontino (Provincia di Gorizia) e nelle aree steppico magredili dell’alta pianura pordenonese (Provincia di Pordenone) (Lapini et al., 2018).

Il primo gruppo riproduttivo di queste zone, localizzato nell’inverno 2015, è stato raggiunto dai lupi ai primi di ottobre 2016 ed è stato da questi decimato nel quadro di un fenomeno di intra-guild competition culminato con l’uccisione di una femmina dell’anno.

Nel 2017 si sono verificati diversi episodi riproduttivi anche sul Carso sloveno a ridosso del confine con la Provincia di Trieste, con la formazione di alcuni gruppi transfrontalieri. Questi ultimi, pur esercitando gran parte dell’attività nella finitima Repubblica di Slovenia, frequentano anche parte della Provincia di Trieste (zona di Medeazza, Malchina, Monte Lanaro-Fernetti, Alta Val Rosandra). Il grande dinamismo del 2017, forse stimolato proprio dall’incontro coi lupi, ha portato ad una grande dispersione di animali, con presenze isolate in Lombardia (Val Brembana, Provincia di Bergamo) e in Emilia Romagna (Provincia di Modena), a Sud del Po. In val Brembana (Provincia di Bergamo) un esemplare isolato è stato fototrappolato diverse volte tra la località di quota di Carisole (giugno 2017), la periferia del sottostante paese di Valleve e la località di Isola di Fondra (foto S. Locatelli 2017-2019).

Jackal fur in Bucharest with 150 Eur

Economy and jackals

by Crispus NGO Sibiu, Romania, Ecology Department

On 7th of September 2019 in "Dimitrie Gusti" National Village Museum in Bucharest near sheep or cattle and lamb furs, golden jackal skin was on sail with 800 RON (150-160 Eur). And apparently all the process is legal. Even if species is NT for EU 27 and management can be done only based on specific seasonal monitoring, the vendor told us that the intestines are send to Cluj-Napoca for analysis of endo-parasites, the penian bone to "Gr Antipa" NHM. So, the fur cost was surprisingly high and it seems that the business is legal, if jackals are culled for scientific purpose.

Photo: Mirel Prisacaru

Photo: Ovidiu C. Banea

Jackals in the Alps, Italy

Jackals in the Alps!

by GOJAGE

A jackal in a winter alpine ecosystem was photographed near a marmot (Marmota marmota), at about 2350 m a.s.l. on the northeastern slope of the Mount Motto, by Dionigi Colombo on 22nd of April 2019. This is a new Italian record near Livigno, Sondrio. 

Photo: Dionigi Colombo, 22.04.2019, Mount Motto, near Livigno, Italy

The Italian golden jackal status is favorable with at least 7 new reproductive groups. Luca Lapini updated the Italian records an present it during the 5th Seminar of Alpine Ecology, on 6th of October 2019.

Jackals in the Alps

Photo: Dionigi Colombo, 22.04.2019, Mount Motto, near Livigno, Italy

Jackals in Finland, just 4 degrees below the Arctic Circle

Finland and "The Battle of the Jackal" - GOJAGE News

A message to GOJAGE community and to Finland Environmental Board

by Ovidiu C. Banea & Giorgos Giannatos

Reykjavik, 26th of July 2019

Letter from Dr Suvi Viranta addressed to GOJAGE members

26th of July 2019:


Dear GOJAGE members,

They have, or at least this one individual has, arrived to Finland. Below is a photo taken from a car in Eno, Karjala, Eastern Finland.

Best regards,
Suvi

---------------------

Thank You, Suvi!

Thank you for coming to The Battle of the Jackal in Marathon Bay, Attica, Greece during the 2IJS organized by Dr Giorgos Giannatos, last November 2018.
Thank you for your scientific work in the field of jackals! 

Ovi & Giorgos

THE NEWS (the picture) in Finland!

GOJAGE NEWS

On 26th of July 2019 Dr Suvi Viranta-Kovanen announced GOJAGE members the first sighting of the golden jackal in Finland. She works at University of Helsinki as a Senior Lecturer in Anatomy at Faculty of Medicine and Adjunct Professor in Paleobiology at Faculty of Science.

In 2015, we thought that jackals arrived to Karup, Denmark via Finland and Sweden or directly crossing the frozen Baltic Sea. Who knows how they arrived to Denmark? It was Dr Miklós Heltai, (the future director of the 3rd International Jackal Symposium, to be held in Gödöllő, Hungary in 2022) who announced the great news of Jackals in Denmark in September 2015.

Suvi is GOJAGE Responsible and Representative in Finland since she was participating at the 2nd International Jackal Symposium in Greece in November 2018 when she was one of the speakers during "The Battle of the Jackal" with her work "Rediscovering the African Wolf" presented in Marathon Bay, Greece, Attica after 2508 years from "The Battle of Marathon". It was about jackals and African wolves during the "Taxonomy" Session of the 2nd International Jackal Symposium. 

Dr. Nikolai Spassov from NHM Sofia, Bulgaria supported the fact that a wolf-jackal (Canis "lupaster") appears to exist in North Africa from the late Pleistocene. He followed: "However, remains the question: is there a golden jackal (C. aureus or more specific African jackal C. anthus?) together with it in Africa? (Spassov, 2018).

Dr Patricia D Moehlman from Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (Tawiri) names this species African golden jackal (Moehlman et al, 2018) and convinced everybody that they are jackals.

Suvi & "The Battle of the Jackal" 

in Finland

"The Battle of the Jackal" moved now to Finland since Suvi works internationally with molecular sequencing to assess African wolf distribution in Africa, which remains uncertain due to confusion regarding possible co-occurrence with the Eurasian golden jackal. Canis lupaster differs from all other Canis spp. including the golden jackal in its cranial morphology, while phylogenetically it shows close affinity to the Holarctic grey wolf.

Golden Jackal in European Union, 

Legal framework applicable to Finland

Annex Va and VI from the EU Habitats Directive

From Hatlauf et al, 2016, GOJAGE E-Bulletin

The golden jackal (​Canis aureus) is a ​Community Interest species​ ("Habitats Directive"92/43/EEC) listed in Annex V a together with pine marten (​Martes martes​), European polecat (​Mustela putorius​) and chamois (​Rupicapra rupicapra​). Monitoring of conservation status is an obligation arising from Article 11 of the Habitats Directive for all habitats (as listed in Annex I) and ​species​ (as listed in ​Annex​ II, IV and ​V​) of Community interest.

Consequently, this provision is not restricted to Natura 2000 sites and data need to be collected both in and outside the Natura 2000 network to achieve a full appreciation of the conservation status.

The main results of this monitoring need to be reported to the Commission every six years according to Article 17 of the directive. Article 14 places a requirement for further surveillance of exploited species of flora and fauna listed in Annex V where necessary. Only after monitoring and scientific reports to the Commission, management measures can be assessed. When management measures are applied in case of ​Community Interest species ​like the golden jackal or chamois a series of hunting methods should be avoided. These hunting methods which are​prohibited are listed in the Annex VI of the "Habitats Directive" 92/43/EEC. 

In 2015, when Jackals were first sighted in Denmark

The Battle of  the Jackal in Finland

It is mandatory to know how to communicate with the Finish Scientific Community and the Finish people. We will be ready to inform that the jackals are omnivorous species with an opportunistic behavior and that they arrived using the natural pathways and that they did not harmed (yet) the protected biota in any natural reserve of this planet Earth and that they maintain decent numbers in other new settled areas without exponential grow. They are not Invasive Alien Species.

Jackals have to be monitored in Finland even better than in other countries and policies of management have to start only after the accurate monitoring of this species which remains fragile and have to fight differently for its survival in these boreal biogeographic regions. In Estonia the depredation and the interaction with other con-generics like Red fox is more aggressive as shown by Peep Männil, our Representative in Estonia in a video during the 2IJS in Greece. Together with Mrs Kaja Lotman and Mr Aleksei Lotman from Matsalu NP they could start in a correct way and understanding the complex management of the jackal species.

GOJAGE fully supports Dr Suvi Viranta-Kovanen to represent our informal community and to help for the conservation efforts of the golden jackal in Finland. We are ready to plan our first Bio Acoustic Monitoring survey in the region of Karjala, where the first jackal species sighting to Finland was recorded with the aim to assess the time and the size of this new European golden jackal species cluster, the northernmost in the world.

Prof. Emerit. Heikki Henttonen explaining jackal sighting and the first report of the jackal in Finland to the local media MTV Uutiset in Finnish.

Eno, Karjala, is a municipality with 6,891 inhabitants located in Eastern Finland at Latitude: 62° 48' 18.40" N and a Longitude: 30° 09' 15.19" E.

Canis aureus is now just 4° close to the Arctic Circle.

Welcome to Finland!
We hope soon you will arrive to Iceland.



Dear Suvi!

We hope to see you again in Hungary in 2022 for the 3IJS (3rd Jackal International Symposium).

Or sooner? near Eno, Karjala during the first Finnish jackal B.A.M. survey!
You have our support and all that you need to help the jackal survive in such an environment!

It seems, that we need a boat...
Best regards,



Ovidiu C. Banea & Giorgos Giannatos

with our colleagues from
2IJS Organizing Committee



Thank you again for all your efforts to join the 2IJS! Good luck with the new friend!

Jackal Ecology Task Force (JET-F) supports you and Professor Emeritus Heikki Henttonen!


Giorgos Giannatos (Greece)
Wildlife Biology, PhD
Department of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
BIOSFAIRA NGO
Contact: ygiannatos@gmail.com

Ovidiu Constantin Banea (Romania)
Ecology-Biology BSc, Essential and Applied Ecology MSc
NGO Crispus Sibiu, Ecology Department
GOJAGE Co-Founder
Contact: ovidiubanea@gmail.com