Integrated ESIA Greece Annex 6.5.9 - East - Golden Jackal Baseline Study Page 2 of 36 Area Comp. System Disc. Doc.- Ser. Code Code Code Code Type No. Project Title: Trans Adriatic Pipeline – TAP GPL00-ASP-642-Y-TAE-0061 Integrated ESIA Greece Document Title: Rev.: 00/at07 Annex 6.5.9 - East - Jackal Baseline Study TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 4 1.1 General Information on Golden Jackal Populations in Europe and Greece 4 1.1.1 General Golden jackal biology 4 1.1.2 Species’ Distribution and population 6 1.2 Legal status 13 2 METHODOLOGY 15 2.1 Objectives 15 2.2 Field Survey Scope of Work 15 2.3 Sampling Methodology 15 2.4 Study Sites 17 2.5 Limitations, Uncertainties and Bias 21 3 RESULTS 23 3.1 Interviews with local people 23 3.2 Acoustic method 26 4 CONCLUSIONS 34 4.1 Key Habitats within the Study Area 34 4.2 General principles of interest for the conservation of Jackal populations 35 LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1 Sampling effort for Canis aureus habitat along the route 18 Table 3-1 Location of interviews along the route 23 Table 3-2 Possible areas of jackal presence along the route according to interviews 26 Table 3-3 Results of the acoustic method applied at the calling stations 28 Table 4-1 Canis aureus territories reports 35 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1 Golden Jackal in Evros Delta, Greece 4 Figure 1-2 Worldwide Distribution of the Golden Jackal 7 Figure 1-3 European Distribution of the Golden Jackal 10 Figure 1-4 Distribution of the Golden Jackal in Greece 12 Figure 1-5 Distribution of the Golden Jackal in Evros Prefecture in 2010 13 Figure 2-1 Areas of interest along TAP East combined with recorded jackal presence according to literature 18 Figure 3-1 Interviews with locals along the route in Evros – Rodopi prefectures (marked with red ‘i’) 24 Page 3 of 36 Area Comp. System Disc. Doc.- Ser. Code Code Code Code Type No. Project Title: Trans Adriatic Pipeline – TAP GPL00-ASP-642-Y-TAE-0061 Integrated ESIA Greece Document Title: Rev.: 00/at07 Annex 6.5.9 - East - Jackal Baseline Study Figure 3-2 Interviews with locals along the route in Xanthi prefecture (marked with red ‘i’) 25 Figure 3-3 Interviews with locals along the route in Serres prefecture (marked with red ‘i’) 25 Figure 3-4 Calling stations set along the pipeline route in Evros prefecture 27 Figure 3-5 Calling stations set along the pipeline route in Xanthi prefecture 27 Figure 3-6 Calling stations set along the pipeline route in Serres prefecture 28 Figure 3-7 Jackal territories along TAP alignment (Evros prefecture) 31 Figure 3-8 Jackal territories along TAP alignment (Xanthi prefecture) 32 Figure 3-9 Jackal territories along TAP alignment (Serres prefecture) 33 Page 4 of 36 Area Comp. System Disc. Doc.- Ser. Code Code Code Code Type No. Project Title: Trans Adriatic Pipeline – TAP GPL00-ASP-642-Y-TAE-0061 Integrated ESIA Greece Document Title: Rev.: 00/at07 Annex 6.5.9 - East - Jackal Baseline Study 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 General Information on Golden Jackal Populations in Europe and Greece 1.1.1 General Golden jackal biology The golden or common jackal (Canis aureus) is a medium-sized canid, considered as the most typical representative of genus Canis, among its closest relatives, the grey wolf, the coyote and the dog. It has the widest distribution in Europe, Africa and Asia among the other jackal species (Canis adustus and Canis mesomelas), distinguished in 14 subspecies within its range, while Canis aureus moreoticus is the one occurring in SE Europe, Minor Asia and Caucasus (Jhala & Moehlman, 2004). Pelt colours are quite variable, depending on season and location but usually reddish, golden-brown and silverish predominate, with the dorsal side to be darker (Giannatos, 2004). It has a rather short, bushy tail with a black tip, which is held between the back legs while running. Jackal size does not exceed 70 cm in total height and body weight averages 8 to13 kg. Figure 1-1 Golden Jackal in Evros Delta, Greece Source: Chris Vlachos (2010) Page 5 of 36 Area Comp. System Disc. Doc.- Ser. Code Code Code Code Type No. Project Title: Trans Adriatic Pipeline – TAP GPL00-ASP-642-Y-TAE-0061 Integrated ESIA Greece Document Title: Rev.: 00/at07 Annex 6.5.9 - East - Jackal Baseline Study The social organization of golden jackals is quite flexible depending on the availability and distribution of food resources (Macdonald, 1979). The basic social unit is the breeding pair, which is sometimes accompanied by its current litter of pups and/or by offspring from former litters, the so called ‘helpers’ (Jhala & Moehlman, 2004). The presence of ‘helpers’ serves in provisioning and guarding the pack, thus it results in a higher pup survival (Moehlman, 1986). The pack size ranges usually between 3 to 5 individuals (Macdonald, 1979). The mating system is strictly monogamous and reproductive activity in northern hemisphere commences from February to March. Pups are born in late spring and their number varies from 1 to 9, although the average litter size is 4 to 6. Young pups join their parents in hunting at the age of 11 or 12 weeks (Jhala & Moehlman, 2004). Home range sizes vary from 1.1 to 20 km2 (Aiyadurai & Jhala, 2006), depending on the distribution and abundance of food resources. The largest home range has been recorded in Ethiopia, where it reaches an area of 64.8 km2 (Admasui et al. 2004), while in Greece data from Fokida prefecture show that it ranges between 2.2 and 15 km2 (Giannatos & Legakis, 2003). The golden jackal has no special demands from its habitat, a feature that allows the species to occupy a wide variety of habitats and utilize a variety of food resources. They occur in semi- desert, short to medium grasslands, wetlands, and sparsely forested, agricultural, rural and semi- urban habitats (Jhala & Moehlman, 2004). Optimum habitat seems to be cultivated areas and wetlands in lower elevations, with adequate cover to be used for hiding and breeding. Important barriers for jackal distribution seems to be mountains with extensive, high forests or unbroken scrub, heavy snowy areas, large intensively cultivated areas, without cover, intensively used urban areas, highways and established wolf populations (Giannatos, 2004). Although it is classified in carnivores, the species is omnivorous and only opportunistic forager, and its diet varies according to season and habitat. Diet analyses have shown that it feeds on invertebrates, amphibians, birds, small mammals -mainly rodents-, carrion and fruit (Yom –Tov et al. 1995, Lanszki & Heltai, 2002, Giannatos et al. 2009). Jackal has also been known as ‘nature cleaner’, since large part of its diet comprises garbage, human waste and carrion. Jackals are usually active during the night, especially in regions where human activity is intense. The distance they can cover varies and for instance in India they move up to 7 km per day. (Aiyadurai & Jhala, 2006). The nocturnal activity begins after sunset and is manifested by howls’ emissions, which play a special role in the social organization of the species. Jackals are easily induced to howl and a single howl evokes responses from several jackals in the vicinity (Jhala & Moehlman, 2004). Through howling, golden jackals proclaim their territory avoiding conflicts with Page 6 of 36 Area Comp. System Disc. Doc.- Ser. Code Code Code Code Type No. Project Title: Trans Adriatic Pipeline – TAP GPL00-ASP-642-Y-TAE-0061 Integrated ESIA Greece Document Title: Rev.: 00/at07 Annex 6.5.9 - East - Jackal Baseline Study adjacent groups, warn the youngs in case of danger, threaten the potential intruders and declare submission or dominance. Preliminary field data indicate that the relationship of the jackal with other canid species is that of a competitor. The wolves usually dominate the jackals and the jackals dominate the foxes. According to Krystufek & Tvrtkovic (1990) the wolf presence is an important limiting factor for the jackal distribution in the Balkan Peninsula, while high density of jackals can act restrictively to population of foxes, by killing or displacing them (Scheinnin et al. 2006, Szabo et al. 2009). In contrast, stray dogs seem to chase away the jackals locally when they detect them, although they usually share the same home ranges (Giannatos, 2004). 1.1.2 Species’ Distribution and population The Golden Jackal is widespread in North and north-east Africa, occurring from Senegal on the west coast of Africa, to Egypt in the east, and Libya in the north to Nigeria, Chad and Tanzania in the south. They have expanded their range eastwards into Syria, Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, the entire Indian subcontinent and then east and south to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and parts of Indo-China (Figure 1-2). They also occur in the Arabian Peninsula, through where it’s said that have passed to Turkey and then colonized Europe, where they have a patchy distribution (Jhala & Moehlman, 2004). Scattered populations are found along the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts and following the Danube, penetrate the inner lowland areas reaching central Europe (Demeter & Spassov, 1993, Krystufek et al. 1997). It is regularly found as a vagrant in Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and north-eastern Italy (Kryštufek, 1999), while it has established a good number of jackal groups in the SW part of Hungary, during the last two decades (Lanszki et al. 2009). The Balkans hosts the largest population in Europe, the main country of distribution being Bulgaria. (Spiridonov & Spassov, 1998). The species’ population status and habitat in each European country is as follows: Albania: Published accounts dating back to the 1950s and 1960s report a distribution mainly along the coastline.