Originally golden jackals came (Canis aureus) from the Middle East to South Asia, but have now spread widely across Europe. The animals are also being sighted more and more frequently in Germany and Scandinavia. However, how they will fit into the ecosystem here and what that means for other predators such as foxes, wolves or lynxes is still unknown. An observation from Slovenia, described by Miha Krofel from the University of Ljubljana and co in “Global Ecology and Conservation”, provides a first insight.
Golden jackals arrived in the country as early as 1955, at the same time it is known for its good populations of brown bears, wolves and lynxes that roam the dense forests of the mountains and karst. Between 2006 and 2021, Krofel and his team conducted a long-term study of lynx in the Dinarides, a mountain range that stretches far southeast from Slovenia. On two occasions, the working group discovered golden jackals feeding on dead deer that lynx had captured in images from the camera trap they had set up.
In both cases, the big cats did not return to their rift. However, it is unknown whether the lynxes were actively driven away by the competitors or whether they avoided the carcasses for other reasons, such as the strange smell. The cats are in principle stronger than the jackals, but these sometimes appear in smaller packs in which they are then superior to the lynx.
It is also unclear whether such competition for food in the Dinarides could become a problem for the endangered lynx at all. Many wolves also live here, which in turn keep the number of jackals small: they kill them on occasion or the jackals avoid the territories of their larger relatives. In areas where there are no wolves, however, the food deprivation known as kleptoparasitism could also endanger the lynx, write Krofel and Co.