SOURCE:

OVIDIU C. BANEA1, MIHA KROFEL2, JAROSLAV ČERVINKA3, PETRE GARGAREA4, LÁSZLÓ SZABÓ5 

"New records, first estimates of densities and questions of applied ecology for jackals in Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve and hunting terrains from Romania"  published in Acta Zoologica Bulgarica,  summer 2012

At the beginning of 18th century (1714), Dimitrie Cantemir, prince of Moldavia in his geographical, ethnographical and economic  description of Moldavia Descriptio Moldaviae mentions also an animal of the ground named "cical" as coming from southern Danube (ANGELESCU 2004).

VASILIU (1961) and VASILIU & SOVA (1968) considered golden jackal to be an occasional visitor from the Balkan Peninsula, crossing the Danube when frozen during severe winters, whilst POP & HOMEI (1973) exclude it from their two volume Mammals of Romania (KRYSTUFEK et al 1997).

Southern Romania: In 1929 jackal presence was mentioned in southern Romania near Danube during a hunting session in Dolj County (CALINESCU 1931). In 1954 it was recorded near Craiova, Calarasi, Nisipari, Jijia and Bucharest region in Prundu and Comana (ROESLER 1989, ANGELESCU 2004). In 1963, one jackal was killed at Gaesti GMU (GEORGESCU 2011). In Southern Dobrogea in forest of Hagieni Reserve jackals were seen at 1996 during surveys realised for Dobrogean fauna by researchers from Natural History Museum Grigore Antipa (MURARIU, pers. comm.; RADULET 2005). At present, it is believed that jackals live up to Oltenia and Muntenia, following the Danube effluents and in Dobrogea in southern forests from Romanian-Bulgarian border until Niculitel Hills (ANGELESCU 2004). In 2010 groups of 4 jackals were reported in Mozacu forest and 7 jackals in Cantacuzeanca forest, on hunting terrains from Arges (GEORGESCU 2011).

North-eastern Romania: In 1954 jackals were reported near Piatra Neamt and Focsani in Moldavia (ANGELESCU 2004). Also jackals have been recorded in Buzau County in Dedulesti in 1971 until 1975, and at Stefanesti near Bucharest. In 1991 jackals were hunted on Dobrina hunting terrain at Husi GMU. Footprints were observed on hunting terrain of Humor Monastery and 2 jackals were hunted in 1970 on Voronet hunting terrain (ANGELESCU 2004).

Western Romania: Jackals were reported in West Land at Berveni in 1970 on Barcau river basin, and in Toboliu reeds from Barcau river in 2008 (PINTEA 2010). In 2007 a jackal was hunted at Cricau inside the Carpathian Arch and one jackal was killed on road at km 338th from DN7 in Alba County (DRAGOMIR 2010). In 2011, specialists from GMU Lunca Timisului from the National Forest Department ROMSILVA reported jackals since 2008 in Cheveresu Mare and Pischia hunting terrains.

Neighbouring countries: In Bulgaria, until the early 1960s the jackal occurred only in the region of Strandja Mountain, in the Southeast part of the country (MARKOV 2011). In the ex-Soviet Union it was recorded in the Caucasus and Middle Asia; sometimes it was reported in Moldavia (ANONIMUS 2011) near eastern part of Romania, on the left bank of Pruth River. In Hungary, species became extinct by the middle of the last century. New population was established in Transdanubia (Somogy and Baranya counties) in the 80s, then between the River Danube and River Tisza (Bács-Kiskun county) in the first part of the 1990s (SZABO et al. 2007).

In the 1950s jackals have been reported in southern part of Romania but also in the east near Focsani in Moldavia. In the 1980s they have been reported in Southern Dobrogea and in the north-eastern part near Husi, on the right bank of Pruth River in Moldavia. Since 2000, increasing number of reports has been related in southern part of the country in Dobrogea, Calarasi and Giurgiu counties. In the last 3 years they have been reported in counties of western part in Timis and Bihor and inside the Carpathian arch in hunting terrains of Alba County.

Jackals were present in Moldavia in 1950s (ANGELESCU 2004) while at the same time in Bulgaria they were reported on the Black Sea coast, south of Burgas, mainly in Strandja Mountains (ATANASOV 1953, SPASSOV 1989, MARKOV 2011), far from Romanian-Bulgarian border and in contrast during the presence in Southern Dobrogea, in 1980s, by the expansion of the populations from Southern Bulgaria after 1960s, they weren’t reported on northern part of Moldavia. This can indicate that in Romania, the jackal movements have an intermittent colonization pattern in different parts, which occurred probably in pulses in 1955-1970 and 1980-1995 with Moldavian-Ukranian origin and in 1930s, 1980-1995 and 2000-present from Bulgaria. In western part of Romania the expansion seems to have taken place in 1970s and in period 2005-to present and originated from Pannonian Plain and Tisza tributaries.

Photo cover: Agatha Salceanu