Wild animals are on the increase in Europe

Wild carnivores increase in Switzerland
Wolves population increase in Bulgaria

Photo: In http://ecomuntiimacinului.wordpress.com/fauna/mamifere/

Photos: In http://www.abhuntingexperience.ro/category/specii/

Wild carnivores are increasing their populations in Switzerland (see news here) as in many countries around Europe.

Jackals were phototrapped in Waadt, Friburg and Bern Kantons (KORA news) in December 2011 during Lynx monitoring programm.

"All species are growing in number in one way or another", said Reinhard Schnidrig, who heads the Federal Office for the Environment's department for hunting, wild animals and biodiversity told the Le Temps daily (14. Sept.2012)

“Bears are returning each year in summer” and wolves had “started to reproduce on Swiss soil,” he said. In addition, he said, the first golden jackal had made its way to Switzerland in recent weeks from the Balkans, while lynxes, wild cats and foxes were also prospering.

“Bears share the same kind of behavior,” he said, adding that female bears had also been making their way to Swiss territory.

With the first wolf litters born in the country this year, “we have entered a new era. Wolves will only go on growing in number,” Schnidrig said. (first females arrived in 2006).

Growing forest cover and an abundance of prey such as deer were together facilitating the rise in wild carnivores in Switzerland, he added.

In Bulgaria (Mihaylov & Stoyanov, 2012) wolves population size was increasing in the past 10 years and the wolf expanded its range, as evidenced by hunting statistics. The harvest of wolves in the period 2000 - 2010 was 2-3 times higher compared to the 70s and 80s of the last century.

First golden jackal-proof in Switzerland

Erster Goldschakal-Nachweis in der Schweiz

Miha Krofel

Perhaps you'd be interested - it is now official, first confirmed evidence of jackal in Switzerland recorded during this year's lynx monitoring with phototraps. (KORA news)

During the lynx monitoring in the northwestern Alps last winter by several camera trapping a strange animal has been mapped: similar in coloration and habit of a wolf, but obviously smaller and more compact, too big and too leggy for a fox. After consulting with several specialists it was confirmed that the photos show a golden jackal (Canis aureus). Is still pending final proof in the form of a genetic analysis, but we keep the recordings for the first tangible evidence of a golden jackal in Switzerland.

In Austria and Northeast Italy reproduction of the golden jackal is detected since 2007 . The evidence so far is from the northern German state of Brandenburg.

The animal pictured here was recorded between the 11/27/2011 and the 12/12/2011 by five different camera traps in the cantons of Bern, Fribourg and Waadt. Since then, no further proof was recorded.