Temporal trends of home range sizes and movement patterns of peri-urban golden jackals in Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

The golden jackal is currently expanding in Europe, but little is known about its movement ecology and space utilisation in these newly colonised areas. The species high adaptability to different diets and habitats, together with the absence of large predators are often considered the main drivers of its great success in recent decades. Immense human-caused habitat alteration is expected to further exacerbate this process. Understanding what factors drive changes in movement patterns and space use is of crucial importance for the establishment of adequate management policies. Here, we analysed temporal variations in the movement patterns and home range sizes of 14 jackals (7 males and 7 females) fitted with GPS collars from 2017 to 2022, in an area characterised by high human impact. Our results showed that movement patterns varied not only between sexes, but also between daytime periods and throughout the year. Both males and females moved significantly more during the night, with males traveling greater distances compared to females. In addition, jackals exhibited notable variations in movement patterns across the year, with movement rates possibly influenced by reproductive phases and other environmental factors such as food availability and cold weather. Jackals’ home ranges were significantly influenced by sex, daytime period and time of year. In addition, night ranges were consistently larger than day ranges, for both males and females. These results provide insight into movement ecology of jackals in an area with high anthropogenic pressure and can serve as a basis for developing appropriate population management strategies.