Our Lithuanian wolf friends Gamtos Apsaugos Asociacija Baltijos Vilkas
Gamtos Apsaugos Asociacija Baltijos Vilkas care about the Baltic Wolf and Golden Jackal
Over the last weeks, our colleagues Vlado Vancura and Otto Dibelius visited several potential Wilderness areas in eastern and northern Europe. During their visit to Lithuania, they met in Vilnius with Lina Paskeviciute and Indre Kabisiute from “Gamtos Apsaugos Asociacija Baltijos Vilkas (Baltic Wolfs)” to discuss mutual cooperation. This NGO is based in Vilnius and closely engaged in the protection of large carnivores in the Baltic States. They also promote herd protection activities of local farmers.
This year, Baltic Wolfs is celebrating they 10th anniversary. Over the last decade they have focused on promoting coexistence with humans and large carnivores. While most of their focus goes to large carnivores, especially wolf, they also observe and react to things happening to other mammal species.
One of the main their topics is wolf-livestock conflicts. Promoting herd protection measures is one way, but also on an international policy level there are major challenges. These require coordinated cooperations, especially for a small country like Lithuania. Find more about their project here.
Golden jackal monitoring
Besides the Baltic wolves, the NGO is also focusing on the developments regarding the Golden Jackal. The Golden Jackal is a new species to Lithuania. Two years ago, Lithuanian institutions tried to include it to the list of invasive species. Baltic Wolfs contributed to fighting against this decision, together with independent researchers. The NGO has some experienced wildlife trackers and is now also tracking and monitoring the golden jackals in Lithuania.
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You are right.. any species that arrives on their own is not being categorised as being invasive.. it may be foreign but that is all.
The Golden Jackal is not an invasive alien species. POINT.
Dear Kajetan, thank you for your comment again. Large and medium sized predators are as much a key player in the ecosystem as rodents and other small mammals. The foxes are flourishing due to historical human intervention, and can be a serious controlling agent on the population growth of jackals in areas where the wolf has not yet returned.
Whether nature ‘needs’ certain species in its ecosystem, depends if nature has place for a species, then the species will find that place. If there is no place for a species due to heavy competition or limited food sources, some species will eventually disappear. That is the essence of nature and evolution.
And not all effect of the jackal presence would be negative, for example it could reduce the population size of pine martens, which put a lot of pressure on the capercaillies by predating its eggs. The story of Africanized honeybee is quite different, they are the result of human crossbreeding of two bee species to maximise honey production and thereby the economical benefit for ourself. But before we end up in endless discussions, I would like to conclude that our views of directions in which nature conservation should develop differ. Which is no problem, and we therefore thank you for your critic view on the development that nature conservation is currently going through in a heavy industrialised and urbanised era.
Dear Nick, I of course agree that the jackal belongs to most widespread species, and expansion of its range started some 12 000 years ago, but nevertheless it was not present north from the Carpathians at least during last 1000 years (I am not aware about any fossile evidence). It is obvious that its present expansion is not due to reintroduction but what makes it so effective coloniser: very high competiveness comparing to local fauna and easiness to adapt to human altered environment. Its rate of expansion in countries like Romania, Estonia or Lithuania having sizeable populations of wolves shows, that we cannot count on native predators being a natural controlling agent. And referring to potential benefits – I do not remember in recent years serious problem with overpopulation of rodents or other small mammals why: because red fox population is flourishing as well as almost all birds of prey. Therefore, having already growing populations of racoons and racoon dogs we do not really need another small predator to keep balance in the nature. My point is that this species poses serious threat for a number of already endangered native species like European hare, partridge, capercaille, corncracker etc. so its population should be carefuly monitored and controlled. Otherwise in few years we will have them everythere, also in towns feeding on garbage. I do not think that it should be the proper direction for nature conservation.
By the way – I agree that introduction of honey bee was truly beneficial but this was extremely rare case – what has happened after fairly recent introduction of African bees?
Dear Kajetan, The golden jackal is currently one of the most widely distributed species of the canids and shows to be an extremely effective colonizer. It is now distributed in large areas of Asia, Africa and Europe. Scientists found evidence that the ancestors of the jackal started to disperse from Africa into Europe already after the last ice age 12,000 years ago. In the 13th century recorded sightings in Eastern Europe showed evidence of its presence, back then the species was called a ‘reed wolf’. So yes, the golden jackal has been recorded in Europe and is far from completely new. However, it did not permanently stay in Europe.
The European jackal populations had to face dramatic changes in the past decades. There have been periods of declines (until the 1960s), recovery (1960 and 1970s) and expansion (early 1980s and ongoing) in their abundance and distribution. Fluctuations were caused by hunting, poisoning, rabies and other drivers. Since the 1960s, a new expansion into Europe started after a long time of disappearance. With a starting point in Turkey, jackals were spreading into Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and former Yugoslavia. Since the end of the 20th century the jackal is increasingly spreading in Central Europe. Current northern distribution boundary in Estonia and Denmark and a western boundary in Switzerland and the Netherlands. An expansion into Western and Northern Europe has been originated from the Balkan population of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia. Please also look at the most recent distribution map of the golden jackal by Gianna Jann (2016).
Is the jackal coming back on it’s own? Yes. There are no project where people (re-)introduce golden jackals anywhere. Their flexibility and reproductive success makes them great colonisers, supported by the abundance of food in forests and close to human settlement. In addition, the golden jackal is benefitting more than most species by the warmer climates in Europe due to climate overheating.
Speaking about the balance in nature, the jackal has a clear role. With large human influences, predators have nearly disappeared in many ecosystems. Herbivores and rodents flourish due to reduced predatory risks. Their effect on smaller rodents and mammals will reduce the pressure on vegetation and crops, which are affected by overpopulation. Should we fear that populations numbers of golden jackal will explode? No, the wolf will balance their number. There is clear scientific evidence, showing how jackal and wolf distributions are close to non-overlapping.
As a final remark on your response, when we speak of introduced species (introduced by who?), there is the ‘rule of 10’. One in every 10 exotic species makes it into nature. One in 10 exotic species in nature will be able to survive, called introduced species. And only one in 10 introduced species becomes invasive. That means only 1 of 1000 exotic species becomes invasive. And there are clear examples of non-native species which have had a positive effect on local ecosystems. Like the honeybee, which is native to Europe. It was brought to Northern America in the 17th century. I won’t deny that the American mink, raccoon and raccoon dog have affected local populations of other species, but it would be unfair to compare the golden jackal with them.
I am sorry, but claiming that golden jackal is making comeback on his own must be a joke – please try to be serious in the discussion. This species was never recorded in central and northern Europe in earlier history. And what kind of a “balance of nature” may be obtained by an appearance of completely new species, highly competitive to native fauna? We have already lost our European mink, many ground nesting birds are decimated by the racoon and racoon dog. Practically in every case when a new species was introduced either intentionally or accidentally consequences for local fauna and flora were negative.
Not being familiar with European wildlife species and in mitigation of comments by Kajetan, it will be necesssary to closely monitor an introduced species to ensure the correct balance is maintained. I will be very interested to read regular reports on the progress of this project Norman Doak
Dear Mr Doak
Well said, but it seems that we humans too often think that animals behave like us. Only humans regular eradicate flora and fauna we depend on. This assumption leads to misguided decisions. In Upper Austria, after a successful otter reintroduction local fishermen claimed that the otter is eating ALL the fish and would eradicate life in the rivers. The authorities then allowed the killing of 40 otter.
I therefore thank you for your comment.
I was most taken aback by the comment from Kajetan above as she seems not to have heard of or understood “the balance of nature”. When a predator species becomes too numerous for its prey species the predator will experience a “die off” and naturally be reduced in numbers. As is the case in Yellowstone in America where the wolves have had a tremendous impact on other species to the improvement and recovery of the whole environment but they too will have a decline in numbers when and if they become too numerous for their prey. Norman Doak
Dear Kajetan Perzanowski, looking at the history of the golden jackal in Europe, it is clear that this species is making a comeback on its own. This, per definition, means the golden jackal is not an invasive species. It is like every other species a part of the complex European ecosystem. Just like the wolf is restoring balance in nature, the golden jackal will also contribute to this. And looking at both America and Europe, we must have learned that extermination of a species does not work. The golden jackal will continue to make its way into European grounds, so we better focus on co-existance instead of eradication.
another irrational action – Golden jackal is an invasive species, highly dangerous to native small fauna and competitive to native small predators. It seems that experiences with American mink and racoon did not teach anybody