French farmers cry wolf as a first jackal is found
A JACKAL has been spotted in France for the first time, alarming farmers campaigning for measures to curb the growing wolf population and troubled by the arrival of another canine predator.
Jackals are smaller than wolves and less likely to attack sheep, according to conservationists, but farmers fear that they will kill lambs and poultry.
A “camera trap”, activated by a motion sensor, captured an image of a golden jackal in Savoy near France’s eastern border with Switzerland. The species, the size of large fox, is normally found in south-eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, but its range has started expanding north and west in recent years. Like wolves, which returned to France in the 1990s, the jackal has crossed the Alps.
André Mugnier, head of the hunters’ federation in Haute-savoie, said: “We have automatic photography systems in some observation areas for wolves and lynxes, and we have very clear images of a jackal that leave no room for doubt. It has been confirmed by a mammalogist at Geneva university.”
A spokesman for the government office for wildlife and hunting acknowledged that the arrival of the jackal in France is inevitable, but added that officials would measure the shoulder height of the animal detected “to be certain that it isn’t a wolf ”.
Conservationists are calling for new legislation to protect jackals in the same way as wolves. Jean-françois Darmstaedter, head of the environmental group Ferus, said: “If we do nothing, the risk is that a golden jackal will soon be killed by a trigger-happy hunter.”
However, livestock breeders are furious that wolves are protected and want to be allowed to hunt jackals if they spread farther into France.