La Hunting Federation, Provincial Section of Venezia Giulia, in collaboration with the Društvo slovenskih Lovcev "Doberdob" recently organized a popular meeting on golden jackal. The speaker of the evening was Dr. Stefano Filacorda researcher of the Department of Animal Sciences of the University of Udine. The presence of the golden jackal (Canis aureus) is now certain in most of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, in stable and reproductive form in the Trieste and Gorizia Karst, in the Natisone Valleys and also in some areas of Carnia.
This species can be adapted to the most varied environments as well as anthropized ones as in the case of the Trieste and Gorizia Karst where some groups have lived for years. The appearance of the jackal in Friuli Venezia Giulia is certainly attributable to mid-eighties through findings of recovered specimens invested or through direct evidence of sightings by users of the territory such as hunters, breeders and operators assigned to hunting surveillance. The golden jackal differs from the fox for its larger size (weight about 12 kg and even more), the shortest tail (20-25 cm) and the longer legs (shoulder height 50 cm), as well as for the typical coat, generally feeds on small mammals, animal carcasses, as well as amphibians, reptiles and birds. It is an animal with great mobility, so much so that some sightings have reported it even in the areas near the river Po.
It is not a native species, but it is a canid that comes from Eastern Europe and precisely from the Balkans, and its expansion, according to recent studies, seems to depend on the decrease in wolves in the last century. Scientific research has recently been focused on these studies to understand the relationships between these two species of canids trying to at the same time improve the knowledge of the ecology of both such as in the Republic of Slovenia and in particular in the areas bordering Italy where the two species coexist. The presence of the jackal requires first of all the knowledge on the part of those who live the territory and among the first we certainly find the hunters who can contribute, such as environmental sentinels, in a decisive manner in monitoring the species by signaling the signs of presence to the researchers.