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

What about golden jackal in Finland and Sweden?

Another dispersal strategy of the golden jackal to the Baltic Sea Coast, Denmark and Germany

by Ovidiu C. Banea
13.09.2015
This report will be published in E-Buletin of  GOJAGE website

Photo: Luca Lapini (2009)

First European jackal discovered in Denmark, this was the news we received from Dr Miklós Heltai (Gödöllő, Hungary). The jackal male with possible cryptorchidism or castrated was road killed during last summer, near the Karup locality in Central Jutlandia, Denmark.

The previous report of a jackal sighting in natural areas out of known range arrived last month from Felix Boecker (Germany). The jackal was observed during a common hunting session in Landkreis Vogelsberg, Germany.

The arrival of the golden jackal species in Denmark is the most challenging issue that GOlden JAckal informal study Group Europe (GOJAGE) wants to understand after the recent debate of the legal status in Lithuania and other Baltic States regarding to the wrong "Invasive Alien Species" category given to the golden jackal species.

Biogeography, natural migration

In a very quick period of time the golden jackal could cross all biogeographic region of Europe between Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea coasts. A long distance-dispersal (LDD) pattern was suggested by Banea et al 2014 at the first Jackal International Symposium in Serbia (Oct 2014).

Now, the new challenge we have is to demonstrate that species arrived to Denmark from Germany or another possible migration route, southern parts of Finland and Sweden. It is known that the Gulf of Riga, Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Bothnia are frozen over five months every year and that the Scandinavian countries are linked by human infrastructures. Time will show us if the Baltic Sea northern and southern coasts will be colonized with reproductive groups of jackals at the same time as occurred with the Black Sea coasts. 

Still remain to demonstrate if the male individual from Denmark is related to other closer reproductive groups or was introduced by people. 

Golden jackal is not an Invasive Alien Species

An invasion begins with the introduction of a non-native species, which then establishes a reproducing population, spreads through the introduced range, and sometimes has major impacts on native ecosystems (Simberloff and Rejmánek, 2011). Non-native species, like native species, can impact human health, national and local economies, and the ecosystems and ecological communities in which they reside (Davis, 2009).

Even if invasibility, the susceptibility of a community or ecosystem to the establishment and spread of one or more introduced species (Simberloff and Rejmánek, 2011) and invasiveness, the ability of a species to reproduce, spread away from places where it is introduced, and establish in new locations (Simberloff and Rejmánek, 2011) could be assessed in the case of jackal by its high habitat plasticity (Šálek et al 2014) and common invader life history traits (Lapini and Banea, 2014), it is extremely important to avoid “invasive alien species”(IAS) terminology when is inadequate.

An IAS is a naturalized species that produces reproductive offspring, often in very large numbers, and that spreads over large areas or a nonindigenous species that spreads rapidly, causing environmental or economic damage (Simberloff and Rejmánek, 2011). The invasive species problem is simply an issue of community composition and assembly. The species invasion depends mostly of the pool of “native” species (including both the species richness and functional diversity) relative to the pool of species arriving as propagules, and how well suited each group of species is to any particular environment, invasions being more common in disturbed habitats (Perrings et al, 2010).

An Invasive Alien Species (IAS) needs to meet at least three conditions to be included on the IAS list (Convention on Biological Diversity). For jackals these conditions have never been demonstrated (Banea et al 2015, Trouwborst et al 2015).

A)  Non-native,  allochtonous, introduced by  people

This  condition  in  the  case  of the golden jackal has now become controversial  for many  researchers, including  geneticists, who assess that  the population  of  the golden  jackal present in  the  Baltic  States could  be  linked  to  the known  natural  range  of  the  main  population.  Golden  jackals could have emerged  from  the known  natural  range on the  northern  Black  Sea  coast  or  Caucasus Mountains, using the Dnieper and Daugava catchments without any relief barriers and arriving ultimately in Polesie (a jackal was shot in SW Belarus at the beginning of 2012). 

B) Pose  a threat  to biological  diversity on  the  local  scale 

Though  to  date no  country  within the known natural range of the golden jackal has reported any loss of biodiversity. 

C) Exponential population growth 

As  a phenomenon present in  some  countries  but    still representing an expression of other natural colonization patterns, with numbers below those of other  congeneric  species, such  as  foxes.  Example:  In Romania, 2.502  jackals as  compared with 17.358  red  foxes  were  shot  in the 28  counties  during the 2012-2013  hunting  season. It seems  that  the  howling  behaviour  of  golden jackals  may  produce a false impression of  high numbers of animals near villages, which has led  to overestimation of the population size.

The introduction of jackals by humans in Baltic States is an hypothesis which have never been demonstrated, oppositely, it seems that jackals arrived to the Baltic Sea coast naturally from the known range. 

If jackals fill all stages of an invasion process, with establishment, spread and impact on local biota this may indicate that they invaded a disturbed ecosystem or that the natural areas and patches which are not colonized in vicinity of knowing clusters are represented by “healthy” ecosystems with good species richness and functional diversity, as probably exists in W Polesia and NE Poland.

We may consider then that if the golden jackal species hypothetically increases its number and establish new clusters of reproductive groups in Germany, Denmark, southern parts of Sweden or Finland, together with biological diversity loss at local scale, this would constitute an indicator of a bad management of natural areas or hunting terrains or simply that the ecosystems were deficient regarding trophic networks.

REFERENCES

Banea O., Bogdanowicz W., Lapini L., Giannatos G., and N. Spassov. (2015). Letter of complaint about the situation of the golden jackal in Lithuania. E-Bulletin GOJAGE DOI 10.13140/RG.2.1.1196.3043

Davis, M.A. (2009) Invasion Biology. Oxford University Press, New York.

Lapini L. and O.C. Banea: Life-history traits, anthropogenic expansion and conservation status of the golden jackal in Europe 1st Jackal Symposium, Veliko Gradiste, Serbia 2014 

Perrings C., Mooney H., and M. Williamson. (2010). Bioinvasions and globalization : ecology, economics, management, and policy. Oxford ; New York :Oxford University Press

Simberloff D, Rejmánek M (Eds) (2011) Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 792 pp.

Šálek M., Červinka J, Banea O.C., Krofel M., Ćirović D., Selanec I., Penezić A., Grill S., Riegert J. (2014) Population densities and habitat use of the golden jackal (Canis aureus) in farmlands across the Balkan Peninsula, European Journal of Wildlife Research, April 2014, Volume 60, Issue 2, pp 193-200

Trouwborst A., Krofel M. & J.D.C. Linnell. 2015. Legal Implications of Range Expansions in a Terrestrial Carnivore: The Case of the Golden Jackal (Canis aureus) in Europe. 24 Biodiversity and Conservation