Home ranges of roaming golden jackals in a European forest-agricultural landscape

Abstract

The successful European expansion of the golden jackal (Canis aureus) is influenced by space use and an exploration of their movement ecology may promote the application of appropriate population management. However, little is known about their home range dynamics in forest–agricultural landscapes with dense populations and high hunting pressure. We evaluated home range size variations and movement patterns of golden jackals in southwestern Hungary, focusing on sex and age differences, seasonal variability, and the prevalence of irruptive nomad behavior. Over a 2-year study, we tracked 45 global positioning system (GPS)-collared jackals (22 females and 23 males) for an average of 245 days, collecting 236,675 hourly location points. We analyzed home ranges using the 95% kernel home range method, and used trajectory segmentation to identify residents (single home range) versus non-resident or irruptive nomads (multiple home ranges or home range shifts). Residents exhibited a mean (± SE) home range size of 14.38 ± 2.27 km² (n = 28), with significant individual variability (up to a 100-fold difference). Males had larger home ranges than females, and juveniles had larger home ranges than adults, particularly during pup-rearing periods. The home range shifts were more frequent for juveniles than adults, and females than males, whereas sex and age did not affect home range size of irruptive nomads (n = 17). Jackals mostly used forests close to forest–agricultural area edges and far from artificial structures. Our data revealed high interindividual space-use variability and intra-year differences in home range sizes between sexes, and substantiated the high ecological plasticity of this species. Our results likely relate to the complex social system of golden jackals along with a dense population, high hunting pressure, absence of large carnivores, and seasonal flexibility in response to abundant food sources.