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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Alture di Polazzo, NE Italy

Jackals in countryside habitat. Gorizia province, Italy




Videos recorded recently in Gorizia show a pair of jackals on 2nd of February 2012 then another specimen on 18th of February 2012. Another individual was registered on 12th of August 2012. The films author,  Bio agriturismo e parco rurale Alture di Polazzo wonders how this group has been established in the area. Countryside and agroturism activity may explain the crowd. Even so, road mortality continue to be a expansion and growth limiting factor of Canis aureus species in these regions. (see L. Lapini et al 2011). To understand better the overview of this situation look on Italian jackals, Gorizia province post uploaded on 10th of Sept 2012.

Interpretation 
1) At the beginning of 2012 (2nd of February), one pair of jackals was recorded in the region (1st video); On the 10th of February 2011 a female of 9.7 kg was road killed (see L. Lapini et al 2011); On the 18th of February 2012 one robust specimen was recorded at the same place having the note as female! (2nd video). 
If we track better the record (2nd video), we can see how the protagonist raises his right leg when he marks his territory. We are looking to a male, maybe the same specimen recorded in the area on 29th of March 2012 by our collegue S. Pecorella

2)The supposed young photo-trapped (3rd video) in loc. Alture di Polazzo (Doberdo' del Lago, Gorizia) it was not a young. In that season a young have 4-5 kg. The photo-trapped specimen, on the contrary, is surely a full developed individual, at the end of the summer moult (and for this reason particularly slender). Probably a female, perhaps the same specimen photo-trapped later and before. The last young from this zone, a female of about 11 months, was road killed on 10 February 2011 (see Lapini et al., 2011).

3)CONCLUSIONS
To conclude this hypothesis we have to admit the limits of phototrapping method:
- We cannot do biometry, body measurement and during IR-night condition sex differentiation being also very difficult;
In the last two year, anyway, in the same zone one adult male was found dead and a young female was road killed by cars. We don't know if they were effective of the above quoted reproductive group. A genetic mapping of jackal specimens, conducted by Friulian Museum of Natural History in Udine, started in the area, and we hope that DNA analysis could gather further information about their true parental links. 
- The best current estimate for this zone, at present, is 2-5 specimens. 

(Luca Lapini, Ovidiu Banea & Stefano Pecorella)



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