Deciphering the origins of phenotypic variations in natural animal populations is a challenging topic for evolutionary and conservation biologists. Atypical morphologies in mammals are usually ...attributed to interspecific hybridisation or de-novo mutations. Here we report the case of four golden jackals (Canis aureus), that were observed during a camera-trapping wildlife survey in Northern Israel, displaying anomalous morphological traits, such as white patches, an upturned tail, and long thick fur which resemble features of domesticated mammals. Another individual was culled under permit and was genetically and morphologically examined. Paternal and nuclear genetic profiles, as well as geometric morphometric data, identified this individual as a golden jackal rather than a recent dog/wolf-jackal hybrid. Its maternal haplotype suggested past introgression of African wolf (Canis lupaster) mitochondrial DNA, as previously documented in other jackals from Israel. When viewed in the context of the jackal as an overabundant species in Israel, the rural nature of the surveyed area, the abundance of anthropogenic waste, and molecular and morphological findings, the possibility of an individual presenting incipient stages of domestication should also be considered.
The golden jackal Canis aureus is spreading throughout Europe and settling in countries where it has never been found before. Understanding its trophic ecology is increasingly important as it ...colonises new areas and ecosystems.
This paper aims to review the diet studies that have been performed on the golden jackal in Europe and provide a complete overview of its food intake, feeding behaviour and strategy.
Golden jackals were found to eat mainly small mammals (54% biomass), followed by domestic animals, ungulates and plants; together, these items make up 90% of the golden jackal’s diet. Birds and lagomorphs were also often found in the diet. Domestic animals and ungulates were primarily consumed as carcasses, and not hunted or killed by golden jackals.
The diet composition differs greatly between areas and seasons, which points towards the golden jackal as a highly adaptive opportunistic omnivore, and demonstrates its ability to use many available food resources. The golden jackal provides regulating and maintenance ecosystem services as a scavenger and consumer of crop pests.
As the golden jackal Canis aureus expands its geographical range throughout Europe, understanding its trophic ecology will become increasingly important. A review of dietary studies revealed that the diet, shown here as % biomass, consists of small mammals (54%), domestic animals taken as carcasses (17%), ungulates mostly taken as carcasses (11%), plants (9.5%), birds (3.8%), lagomorphs (1.4%) and miscellaneous items (1.5%) including carnivores, invertebrates, reptiles & amphibians, fish. The golden jackal is an opportunistic omnivore that provides regulating and maintenance ecosystem services as a scavenger and predator of crop pests.
Ecosystem services are receiving increasing attention among researchers and managers, due to emerging recognition of their global extent and contribution towards human welfare. Obligatory scavengers ...have been identified as important providers of these services, namely waste management, but their populations are declining worldwide and mesocarnivores are taking on the role of dominant scavengers in many regions. However, mesocarnivores are rarely appreciated for their services of waste removal, and are mostly cited in negative contexts in the literature. Here we explored the widely neglected potential of mesocarnivores as providers of ecosystem services. We used the golden jackal (Canis aureus) as a model species and evaluated its provision of ecosystem services in a developing country in the Balkans, where waste management creates numerous challenges. Based on contents of 606 jackal stomachs, food intake and population size, we estimate that in Serbia jackal population annually removes >3700t of animal waste and 13.2 million crop pest rodents. We estimate the monetary value of animal waste removal at >0.5 million € per year. We scaled this result up to evaluate ecosystem services at the continental-scale, and these results indicate that jackals remove substantial amounts of discarded animal waste (>13,000t) as well as potential crop pests (>158 million crop pest rodents) across human-dominated landscapes of Europe. These results are the first to demonstrate the value of ecosystem services provided by mesocarnivores as facultative scavengers, and show that they are of great value for local communities in the modern world. We emphasize the importance of recognizing ecosystem services provided by species with predominantly negative public images, in consideration of their conservation.
•We evaluated ecosystem services provided by a mesocarnivore in a developing country.•Jackals removed substantial amounts of discarded animal waste and crop pests.•Benefits from mesocarnivores for local communities appear higher than costs.•Re-evaluation of mesocarnivore role in ecosystem services is called for.
Eid E, Smithson J. 2024. Evidence of southwestern distribution of the golden jackal in Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve, Saudi Arabia. Biodiversitas 25: 1676-1681. The golden jackal, Canis ...aureus Linnaeus 1758, is listed as a species of globally Least Concern status by the IUCN; however, throughout the Arabian Peninsula, it is classified as Near Threatened due to the lack of information on its population and threats. Despite beings a widespread species, the information on the golden jackal distribution in Saudi Arabia is derived from limited historical records that have restricted its presence to the Hofuf area, around Al Asfah and Al Jawf in the Northeast, and very recent records in the agricultural areas in Tabuk governorate. In addition, photographic evidence of a juvenile individual was recorded in 2017 around the Jubail area. Here, we report the first confirmed Western distribution extension for Saudi Arabia, located in Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve, and the most southwestern distribution worldwide. The jackal was recorded twice, suggesting a passing individual or a resident population, requiring further investigation and research. The presence of suitable ecosystems, habitats, and prey composition supports this. This record is important for Saudi Arabia and the Reserve as it guides the conservation efforts and highlights the importance of systematic surveys to understand the existing population, state, and threats.
The advancement of Photovoltaic (PV) systems hinges on the precise optimization of their parameters. Among the numerous optimization techniques, the effectiveness of each often rests on their ...inherent parameters. This research introduces a new methodology, the Reinforcement Learning-based Golden Jackal Optimizer (RL-GJO). This approach uniquely combines reinforcement learning with the Golden Jackal Optimizer to enhance its efficiency and adaptability in handling various optimization problems. Furthermore, the research incorporates an advanced non-linear hunting strategy to optimize the algorithm's performance. The proposed algorithm is first validated using 29 CEC2017 benchmark test functions and five engineering-constrained design problems. Secondly, rigorous testing on PV parameter estimation benchmark datasets, including the single-diode model, double-diode model, three-diode model, and a representative PV module, was carried out to highlight the superiority of RL-GJO. The results were compelling: the root mean square error values achieved by RL-GJO were markedly lower than those of the original algorithm and other prevalent optimization methods. The synergy between reinforcement learning and GJO in this approach facilitates faster convergence and improved solution quality. This integration not only improves the performance metrics but also ensures a more efficient optimization process, especially in complex PV scenarios. With an average Freidman's rank test values of 1.564 for numerical and engineering design problems and 1.742 for parameter estimation problems, the proposed RL-GJO is performing better than the original GJO and other peers. The proposed RL-GJO stands out as a reliable tool for PV parameter estimation. By seamlessly combining reinforcement learning with the golden jackal optimizer, it sets a new benchmark in PV optimization, indicating a promising avenue for future research and applications.
The golden jackal continues to slowly inhabit the north of Central Polissia and to disperse. Mostly single individuals are found. The social structure of the jackal is flexible and groups of more ...than two individuals are found in places of food concentration. A similar situation occurred in the Ubort River valley near the Ukrainian–Belarusian border, when visual encounters of jackal family consisting of probably 3–4 animals were very frequent near the burial place of livestock corpses. In the north of Central Polissia of Ukraine, the jackal has been recorded since 2014. The species is rare here. According to the registration of tracks, this predator is found on a less forested forest ridge between the settlements of Ovruch–Velidnyky–Slovechno–Levkovychi and in the valley of the Ubort River, which is a natural corridor of the species’ northward dispersal. Given Ukraine’s course towards EU membership and the position of the Baltic countries on the jackal, our country will obviously have to take into account the special status of the jackal as a species that has expanded its range on its own. Accordingly, this predator should not be considered an invasive species. Obviously, the problem with the jackal in forested regions of north of Ukraine will be much less severe than in the south in the floodplains of large rivers. In the Polissia, in trophically rich broadleaf forests with mosaic forest cover, the jackal is likely to coexist successfully with the wolf. Interspecific relations between wolves and jackals do not take the form of direct pursuit, but rather by marking territory. It has been found that jackals respond to chemical and visual markings of wolves during dispersal and try to quickly leave areas with high wolf population density. Unlike solitary wolves in the wild, solitary jackals are able to forage for food much more efficiently and therefore have a higher chance of survival in the wild. The preconceived notion of the jackal as a problematic species may not allow for an unbiased assessment of its impact on ecosystems. In its relations with humans, the jackal in the Polissia is a less problematic species compared to wolves, foxes, or American minks. It is necessary to inform the Ukrainian public, authorities and politicians about existing international legal instruments and European experience in managing populations of carnivorous mammals, including the golden jackal.
In the first continent-wide study of the golden jackal (Canis aureus), we characterised its population genetic structure and attempted to identify the origin of European populations. This provided a ...unique insight into genetic characteristics of a native carnivore population with rapid large-scale expansion. We analysed 15 microsatellite markers and a 406 base-pair fragment of the mitochondrial control region. Bayesian-based and principal components methods were applied to evaluate whether the geographical grouping of samples corresponded with genetic groups. Our analysis revealed low levels of genetic diversity, reflecting the unique history of the golden jackal among Europe's native carnivores. The results suggest ongoing gene flow between south-eastern Europe and the Caucasus, with both contributing to the Baltic population, which appeared only recently. The population from the Peloponnese Peninsula in southern Greece forms a common genetic cluster with samples from south-eastern Europe (deltaK approach in STRUCTURE, Principal Components Analysis PCA), although the results based on BAPS and the estimated likelihood in STRUCTURE indicate that Peloponnesian jackals may represent a distinct population. Moreover, analyses of population structure also suggest either genetic distinctiveness of the island population from Samos near the coast of Asia Minor (BAPS, most STRUCTURE, PCA), or possibly its connection with the Caucasus population (one analysis in STRUCTURE). We speculate from our results that ancient Mediterranean jackal populations have persisted to the present day, and have merged with jackals colonising from Asia. These data also suggest that new populations of the golden jackal may be founded by long-distance dispersal, and thus should not be treated as an invasive alien species, i.e. an organism that is "non-native to an ecosystem, and which may cause economic or environmental harm or adversely affect human health". These insights into the genetic structure and ancestry of Baltic jackals have important implications for management and conservation of jackals in Europe. The golden jackal is listed as an Annex V species in the EU Habitats Directive and as such, considering also the results presented here, should be legally protected in all EU member states.
•First-ever mitogenome assembly of golden jackal samples from Turkey and Thailand.•Phylogenetic analysis revealed distinct subspecific status of Indochinese jackal.•Larger cytochrome b dataset ...further confirms distinctness of Indochinese jackal.•Findings can inform golden jackal evolutionary history and conservation status.
The golden jackal (Canis aureus) is a canid species found across southern Eurasia. Several subspecies of this animal have been genetically studied in regions such as Europe, the Middle East, and India. However, one subspecies that lacks current research is the Indochinese jackal (Canis aureus cruesemanni), which is primarily found in Southeast Asia. Using a genome skimming approach, we assembled the first complete mitochondrial genome for an Indochinese jackal from Thailand. To expand the number of available Canis aureus mitogenomes, we also assembled and sequenced the first complete mitochondrial genome of a golden jackal from Turkey, representing the C. a. moreotica subspecies. The mitogenomes contained 37 annotated genes and are 16,729 bps (C. a. cruesemanni) and 16,669 bps (C. a. moreotica) in length. Phylogenetic analysis with 26 additional canid mitogenomes and analyses of a cytochrome b gene-only data set together support the Indochinese jackal as a distinct and early-branching lineage among golden jackals, thereby supporting its recognition as a possible subspecies. These analyses also demonstrate that the golden jackal from Turkey is likely not a distinct lineage due to close genetic relationships with golden jackals from India and Israel.
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