European jackal

European jackal
Jackal near Davutoğlan, Turkey
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Canidae
Genus: Canis
Species:
C. aureus
Subspecies:
C. a. moreoticus
Trinomial name
Canis aureus moreoticus
Partial map of the distribution in the mid 2010s
Synonyms

C. a. graecus (Wagner, 1841)

The European jackal (Canis aureus moreoticus) is a subspecies of the golden jackal present in Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Southeast Europe.[4][2] It was first described by French naturalist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire during the Morea expedition.[3] There were an estimated 70,000 jackals in Europe according to one source;[5] another source gives an estimate of 97,000 to 117,000 individuals.[6] Though mostly found in South-Southeastern Europe, its range has grown to encompass parts of the Baltic in Northeastern Europe,[7] in Eastern Europe (Poland), Southern Europe, mostly in Italy (first observed in 1984),[8][9] with further sightings in Western Europe (including in France, Germany); several other countries in mainland Europe have reported the jackals as vagrants.[10][6] One theory, which has been set forth to explain the rapid spread of the species since the 1970s to colonise European areas in which they were perhaps likely never historically native, is that grey wolf populations are less abundant than in the historic past.[5]

  1. ^ "Canis aureus in Europe". iucnredlist.org.
  2. ^ a b Wozencraft, W. C. (2005). "Order Carnivora". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 574. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  3. ^ a b Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, I. & Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, É. (1836), Expédition scientifique de Morée, tome III, 1er partie, Levrault, pp. 19-27
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference soviet was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Krofel, M.; Giannatos, G.; Ćirovič, D.; Stoyanov, S.; Newsome, T. M. (2017). "Golden jackal expansion in Europe: a case of mesopredator release triggered by continent-wide wolf persecution?". The Italian Journal of Mammalogy. 28 (1). Hystrix. doi:10.4404/hystrix-28.1-11819.
  6. ^ a b "Golden jackal - Canis aureus". Large carnivores - species factsheets. Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe. 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  7. ^ (in Estonian) Peep Männil: Läänemaal elab veel vähemalt kaks šaakalit, tõenäoliselt rohkem Archived 2 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Eestielu.ee (3 April 2013)
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Savinja Valley was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Clementi, Maria. Scoperto in Val Tagliamento lo sciacallo dorato (in Italian)
  10. ^ "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species". Iucnredlist.org. Retrieved 10 August 2022.