Ecotones in the Spotlight-Habitat Selection of the Golden Jackal (Canis aureus Linnaeus, 1758) in the Agricultural Landscapes of Central Europe.

Abstract

The large-scale expansion of the golden jackal (Canis aureus) across Europe in recent decades has been strongly influenced by its successful space and habitat use. In this study, we analyzed the habitat selection of seven golden jackals tracked with GPS collars between 15 March 2021 and 25 November 2022 in a predominantly agricultural landscape in the southwestern part of the Pannonian Basin, Central Europe. Animals were tracked for an average of 29 weeks, and GPS collars recorded a total of 29,840 hourly localization points, which were compared to a high-resolution land cover dataset. We found that golden jackals maintain smaller home ranges in agricultural landscapes than in more pristine environments. Based on Jacobs' index values calculated for monthly habitat preferences and the distribution of distances from land cover edges, we also found that preferences for the various habitat types differed significantly among individuals. Most of the time, golden jackals stayed near the edges of forests, agricultural lands, and shrublands, while they stayed away from artificial areas, wetlands, and water bodies. Forests and shrublands providing cover and safety were generally preferred by the golden jackals, especially during breeding and pup-rearing periods, while there was a strong avoidance of agricultural lands in general. Overall, our findings suggest that despite individual differences in the availability of habitat types within home ranges, forest-agricultural ecotones with relative proximity to food and shelter play a key role in the habitat selection of golden jackals.