Food preferences of golden jackals and sympatric red foxes in European temperate climate agricultural area (Hungary)

Abstract

Differences in food preferences between two sympatric canids, the golden jackal (Canis aureus), which is currently spreading from south-east Europe and is a little-known species in Europe, and the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) were investigated. Data on diet composition and food availability were collected over a 13-season period, in a temperate climate agricultural area of Hungary. We found that jackals and foxes preferred small mammals (Ivlev's electivity index, E i s0.38 and 0.39, respectively), and avoided towards wild boar (E i s -0.43 and -0.56, respectively) and cervids (E i s-0.92 and -0.94, respectively). Jackals preferred pheasant less than foxes (E i s0.06 and 0.51, respectively). Within small mammals, both predators preferred the open field living species, with the forest living species being less favoured. The relationship between the available biomass of small mammals, as the primarily important food resource for both canids, and the proportion of consumed biomass of small mammals was not close. This was probably as a result of abundant food resources and high trophic flexibility of the golden jackal and red fox allowing these two closely related carnivores to coexist sympatrically in Central European areas without resource partitioning.

<b>Winter food habits of the Golden Jackal <I>Canis aureus</I> (Mammalia: Carnivora: Canidae) in Patna Bird Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh, India</b>

“…Feeding on small mammals by jackal is reported in a number of studies in Asian (Demeter & Spassov 1993;Mukherjee et al 2004;Jaeger et al 2007) and the African continents (Lamprecht 1978;Goldenberg et al 2010) and European agricultural areas (Lanszki et al 2006;Lanszki & Heltai 2010). The presence of cattle, Nilgai and civet in the scat of Golden Jackal in the present study indicate scavenging on carcasses.…”

Food niche segregation between sympatric golden jackals and red foxes in central Bulgaria

“…() found that red fox populations decreased in the areas where jackals became abundant. Both canids selectively predate rodents (particularly, Microtidae; Lanszki, Heltai & Szabo, 2006; Lanszki & Heltai, ), and yet in our study region foxes numbers have remained stable despite the invasion of jackals. We therefore test the hypothesis that some functional extent of trophic niche segregation must occur in our study population, else foxes would risk being out‐competed indirectly for these key rodent food types, or could potentially suffer direct agonistic exclusion.…”

Feeding responses of the golden jackal after reduction of anthropogenic food subsidies

“…Experimentally confirmed [22] that human-resource subsidies alter the dietary preferences of dingoes ( Canis lupus dingo ). Medium-sized canids may respond to changing amounts of food by dietary switching [23–25]; jackals use of both prey and directly or indirectly derived anthropogenic food sources. They may also respond with changes in body size [26].…”