Natural History Wanderings

The New York Times reports

A species that was barely known in Europe now vastly outnumbers wolves there, and is rapidly spreading north and west.

Jackals now vastly outnumber Europe’s wolves, totaling at most 117,000 by the latest official estimate. By contrast, a high estimate of Europe’s wolves is about 17,000. Slovenia itself has somewhere between 200 and 400 jackals, Dr. Krofel estimated, and about 75 wolves.

This is an unheard-of expansion of a medium-sized predator into a continent that it once inhabited only on the fringes. And it has only started to capture scientific interest in Europe, which is beginning to grapple with what the expansion means ecologically, and what the issues are in terms of conservation and legal status

Read full story at Rise of the Golden Jackal