Aakriti Singh et al published new research regarding food availability and lack of competition in jackal specific ecological systems from Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan. The work was published on-line on 21st of March 2016 in Mammal Research ISSN: 2199-2401 (Print) 2199-241X (Online).
Using distance sampling method the authors found a density of 14.84 individuals/km2 (5 territorial groups). The authors concluded that the lack of any major competitor and high food resource availability has led to a several fold increase in the population size of golden jackal in a span of 3 decades.
The human activity is high in surroundings of the park (more than 15 villages), inside the park are a lot of ferral cattle which seems to have some effect on the density of jackals.
In the close future Keoladeo National Park will represent one of the prefered study areas for Crispus NGO Sibiu Romania and GOJAGE when holistic approach of jackal specific ecological systems will be assessed. As we mentioned in previous post (here) bioacoustic monitoring (BAM) is preferable to be performed in this protected natural area in order to compare data with the actual jackal density estimations obtained by distance sampling method.
