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Population densities and habitat use of the golden jackal (Canis aureus) in farmlands across the Balkan Peninsula

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Abstract

The main objective of this study was to analyze the habitat use and population densities of the golden jackal in four countries across lowland regions of the Balkan Peninsula, known as the core area of the species' distribution in Europe. Using indirect (acoustic) method for detecting territorial golden jackals, we surveyed jackal presence and densities on 331 monitoring sites in four countries, covering area an of 4,296 km2 in total during April and May 2007–2012. We used GIS to assess landscape and environmental characteristics in a 2-km circular buffer (12.6 km2) around calling stations. Average population density of golden jackals in the study areas ranged between 0.6 and 1.1 territorial groups/10 km2 (mean ± SE, 0.6 ± 0.06 groups/10 km2), with several high-density areas with up to 4.8 territorial groups/10 km2. Analysis of habitat use showed that for both jackal occurrence and number of jackal groups, the only significant parameter was the interaction between country and intensity of agriculture, indicating that jackals adapt their habitat selection patterns in relation to the habitat availability. We observed that selection of the more suitable habitats (shrub–herbaceous vegetation/heterogeneous agricultural vegetation) increased with lower proportion of these habitat types in the study area. Our study confirms high habitat plasticity of the golden jackal and offers explanation for its recent range expansion, which might be connected with the land use changes during the last decades in the Balkan Peninsula.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Aleš Lipičnik, Nadja Osojnik, and Aleš Sedlar for their help in the field. We thank Giorgos Giannatos, Nikolai Spassov, Luca Lapini, Stoyan Stoyanov, and Dumitru Murariu for their scientific and technical advice. We would also like to thank Marina Kipson for editing the English manuscript. This work was supported by the research aim of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (RVO 68081766), by the grant of Grant Agency of University of South Bohemia 168/2013/P and Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia (Contract TR 31009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Květná 8, 603 65, Brno, Czech Republic

    Martin Šálek

  2. Faculty of Agriculture, Applied Ecology Laboratory, University of South Bohemia, Studentská 13, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Jaroslav Červinka

  3. Administration of Třeboňsko PLA, Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, Valy 121, 379 01, Třeboň, Czech Republic

    Jaroslav Červinka

  4. Ecology Department of Crispus NGO Sibiu, Str. Papiu Ilarian 14, Sibiu, Romania

    Ovidiu C. Banea

  5. Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot 83, 1001, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Miha Krofel

  6. University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, Studentski trg 16, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Duško Ćirović & Aleksandra Penezić

  7. Association BIOM, Bianknijeva 12/b, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Ivana Selanec

  8. Department of Ecosystem Biology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Stanislav Grill

  9. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Jan Riegert

Authors
  1. Martin Šálek
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  2. Jaroslav Červinka
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  3. Ovidiu C. Banea
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  4. Miha Krofel
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  5. Duško Ćirović
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  6. Ivana Selanec
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  7. Aleksandra Penezić
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  8. Stanislav Grill
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  9. Jan Riegert
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Šálek.

Additional information

Communicated by C. Gortázar

Appendices

Appendix 1

Variables used to analyze habitat preferences of golden jackal in the study areas according to Corine Land Cover classes.

Table 5 Variables used to analyze habitat preferences of golden jackal in the study areas according with Corine Land Cover classes
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Appendix 2

Fig. 1
figure 1

Number of golden jackal groups on individual monitoring sites in studied countries

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Appendix 3

Fig. 2
figure 2

Agricultural intensity (score from the first ordination axis of PCA) at occupied/unoccupied counting points for (a) Romania, (b) Bulgaria, (c) Croatia, and (d) Serbia. Whiskers—non-outlier range, boxes—25–75 % of data, squares—median. For each country, we performed Mann–Whitney U test, and statistical significances are noted within graphs

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Appendix 4

Fig. 3
figure 3

Relationships between agricultural intensity (score from the first ordination axis of PCA) and number of jackal groups for (a) Romania, (b) Bulgaria, (c) Croatia, and (d) Serbia. Significant relationship was found only for Serbia (simple regressions, statistical significances are noted within graphs)

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Appendix 5

Medians for proportions of each occupied/unoccupied habitat type related to the agricultural intensity with statistical significance (Mann–Whitney U tests), and analyses of the effect of habitat type on number of jackal groups. P values below P = 0.05 are in italics. Arable arable land, Hetero heterogeneous agricultural vegetation, Shrubs shrub–herbaceous vegetation.

Table 6 Medians for proportions of each occupied/unoccupied habitat type related to the agricultural intensity with statistical significance (Mann–Whitney U tests), and analyses of the effect of habitat type on number of jackal groups
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Šálek, M., Červinka, J., Banea, O.C. et al. Population densities and habitat use of the golden jackal (Canis aureus) in farmlands across the Balkan Peninsula. Eur J Wildl Res 60, 193–200 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-013-0765-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-013-0765-0

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