Letter of complaint about the situation of the golden jackal in Lithuania a GOJAGE e-Bulletin / 2nd of June 2015

http://goldenjackal.eu/E-Bulletin-GOJAGE.php

By Ovidiu C. Banea, Wieslaw Bogdanowicz, Luca Lapini, Giorgos Giannatos and Nikolai Spassov

Golden Jackal Informal Study Group in Europe (GOJAGE) and Jackal Ecology Task Force (JETF) in Central and SE Europe do not consider the golden jackal to be an invasive alien species in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and NE Ukraine. In the recent past we have received two reports concerning the occurrence of golden jackals in Northern Europe 1) Lithuania: Dead jackal. The animal was shot in Šakių district, near Lekėčiai, on February 7, 2015; some samples were collected for investigation at the Kaunas-based Tadas Ivanauskas Museum of Zoology. The Museum confirmed that the shot animal was a golden jackal. Source: Gintarė Žalkauskaitė, on behalf of the “Baltijos vilkas” NGO. 2) Poland: Live jackal. On 21st May 2015, on the "Biebrznięci" Facebook profile a few photos were posted. The animal was photographed near the village of Gugny on the "Tsar’s Road" (Carska Droga), near the Biebrza National Park: 53° 21' 0" North, 22° 36' 0" East. Sources: Maciej Romanski, Wieslaw Bogdanowicz, Wojciech Solarz. A GOJAGE team explored NW Ukraine and NE Poland in the course of Baltica 2015, first stage (Full report here). Lithuanian Environmental Board preparing to include the species on the Invasive Alien Species (IAS) list. The Ministry of Environment in Lithuania prepared changes to the list of invasive species and included the golden jackal on the list – in line with a decision of the Commission on Invasive Species. Now there is the last stage - the alignment with society up to 6th June 2015. The Jackal Ecology Task Force (JETF) is a group of experts in Central and SE Europe formed within the GOJAGE framework at the initiative of the Crispus NGO Sibiu Romania. This group of experts on the golden jackal aims to gather support for their own research programs regarding the ecology of the species. (See members and signature at the end of this document). This group has been active since June 2012. An Invasive Alien Species (IAS) needs to meet at least three conditions to be included on the IAS list: A) Non-native, allochtonous, introduced by people. This condition in the case of the golden jackal has now become controversial for many researchers, including geneticists, who assess that the population of the golden jackal present in the Baltic States could be linked to the known natural range of the main population. Golden jackals could have emerged from the known natural range on the northern Black Sea coast or Caucasus Mountains, using the Dnieper and Daugava catchments without any relief barriers and arriving ultimately in Polesie (a jackal was shot in SW Belarus at the beginning of 2012).

B) Pose a threat to biological diversity on the local scale - though to date no country within the known natural range of the golden jackal has reported any loss of biodiversity. C) Exponential population growth – as a phenomenon present in some countries but still representing an expression of other natural colonization patterns, with numbers below those of other congeneric species, such as foxes. Example: In Romania, 2.502 jackals as compared with 17.358 red foxes were shot in the 28 counties during the 2012-2013 hunting season. It seems that the howling behaviour of golden jackals may produce a false impression of high numbers of animals near villages, which has led to overestimation of the population size. The legal status of the golden jackal in Europe Based on Papp et al (2013) Applied ecology and management aspects related to the golden jackal specific ecological system in Romania. ACTA MUSEI MARAMOROSIENSIS IX, Sighetu Marmației, Ianuarie 2014 (Editia 2013). In 1996 the golden jackal (Canis aureus) was included in the Lower Risk/Least Concern category of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. Since then the species is considered Least Concern by IUCN Red List. The CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of the Wild Fauna and Flora, signed in Washington D.C. on 3rd of March 1973) lists the golden jackal in Appendix III. This Appendix contains species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for assistance in controlling the trade. The EC Habitats Directive (92/43 of 21.05.1992) lists the golden jackal in Annex V. This Annex includes animal and plant species of community interest whose taking in the wild and exploitation may be subject to management measures. European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention) in 1979. Appendix III of Bern Convention, which includes species that are in need of protection but may be hunted or otherwise exploited in exceptional instances, does not include jackal as protected species. Jackal is mentioned in Annex V of EC Habitats Directive 92/43, as above mentioned derived from the Bern Convention framework. There is a clear necessity to better address and apply the legal framework on the conservation of the golden jackal in European countries, taking into account the fact that in many newcolonised areas data are entirely absent, while the ecology of the species is often confounded with that of the grey wolf. In Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, the jackal harvest is coming to rise exponentially, but we do not know if this is due to continuous development of the population or else to bad management. Non-sustainable hunting without comprehensive and reliable monitoring data on the given species should be avoided, as requested for species listed in Annex V of the EC Habitats Directive (Directive 92/43). Since the European jackal is considered a game species anyway, special measures should be taken, including a prohibition on the utilisation of aircraft or any other motorised vehicles in pursuit during the hunting sessions (Annex VI of the Habitats Directive), and prohibition of various popular bad hunting practices. The European Mammal Assessment (EMA) represents the first review of the conservation status of all wild mammals in Europe in line with the IUCN regional Red Listing guidelines (Temple & Terry, 2007). The European Mammal Assessment and consequently this report

have been requirements for the framework of a service contract with the European Commission (Service Contract No. 070502/2005/414893/MAR/B2). The Red List assessments were made at two regional levels for terrestrial species: for Europe, and for 25 Member States of the European Union at the time the EMA was initiated in 2005. In the course of the European Mammal Assessment, the experts assigned to the golden jackal the category Near Threatened (Appendix 1) as regards the Red List status for European mammals in their report for the EU 25 level category. A taxon is Near Threatened when it has been evaluated against the criteria but does not qualify for Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable now, but is close to or likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future (IUCN, 2011). Taking the above reasons into account, we advise that the golden jackal not be classified as an IAS in Lithuania, for the moment at least. The process entailing the migration of the golden jackal in Lithuania needs to be monitored- and it will be interesting to see if this carnivore is able to survive in these rather unusual conditions. On behalf of JETF and GOJAGE, June 2, 2015

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Facsimile of JETF in 2012

Ovidiu C Banea, Krassimir Kurtev, Dumitru Murariu, Viorica Bâscă, Grigore Băboianu, Angela Bănăduc, Nikolai Spassov, Giorgos Giannatos, Miha Krofel, Duško Ćirović, Ivana Selanec, László Szabó, Miklós Heltai and József Lanszki signed Jackal Ecology Task Force JETF constitution (Doc 1/14.06.2012, NGO Crispus Sibiu)