First case in Bavaria: predator from Asia tears sheep

Created: 08/13/2022, 04:47

By: Boris Forstner

Three sheep were killed near Jakob Buchner near Huglfing.

The investigation has now revealed that it is a golden jackal.

Huglfing

- Far away from any settlement, the hamlet of Grasleiten lies in the middle of the forest between Huglfing, Uffing, Böbing and Peißenberg.

There are only two courtyards in this idyll, Jakob Buchner lives in one of them.

The 69-year-old has been running a sheep farm with a friend since last year. 50 to 60 white and black forest sheep romp around in the meadow about 150 meters from the farm.

Some of the herd wasn't even fenced off, says Buchner, what should happen?

That changed abruptly on April 28th.

That morning Buchner found three dead sheep scattered across the pasture, badly battered and partially eaten.

Two twin lambs, only two days old, had also disappeared.

"I immediately thought it must have been a wolf," says Buchner, who immediately informed the experts at the State Office for the Environment (LfU).

They're responsible for such cases of large carnivores.

Was it a wolf?

Expert is skeptical

But the employee who came to document the incident and take genetic material was rather skeptical, Buchner recalls.

“He said the sheep would have looked different then.

He said it wasn't a big predator and suspected it was more of a fox.” Perhaps that's why the case wasn't treated with the highest priority.

Farmer Jakob Buchner with the shy forest sheep that have retreated into the shade in the heat.

© Photo: Boris Forstner

Because only last week, after more than three months, Buchner was given the result of the DNA test by telephone.

The amazing result: Neither of them was right - the predator was a golden jackal.

The golden jackal - a migrant from Asia

The golden jackal looks like a mixture of fox and wolf, but according to the LfU it resembles a fox in its prey-catching behavior and is also only slightly larger with a shoulder height of 35 to 50 centimeters.

It is the only jackal species that occurs in Europe and is actually native to tropical and subtropical regions of Asia.

In Europe, the golden jackal is particularly common in the Balkans, but has been spreading further west and north for some time.

There are now larger populations in Austria and northern Italy.

In Germany, a golden jackal fell into a photo trap in the Bavarian Forest in 2012, it was the first detection in Bavaria.

This unexpected result also caused some excitement in the LfU.

Because the golden jackal has only been found nine times in Bavaria, either through the discovery of a dead animal, genetic evidence or image material, 14 other alleged sightings could not be confirmed.

But the case in Grasleiten "is the first livestock tear in Bavaria that can be proven to be due to a golden jackal," said an LfU spokesman - a sensation.

Predator has been around in the area for quite some time

Buchner believes that the predator, which is still extremely rare in this country, has been around in the area for a long time.

Because an acquaintance saw a predator in the forest at the time and thought it was a wolf.

"That could have been the golden jackal," Buchner speculates.

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This golden jackal, which fell into a photo trap in the Bavarian Forest in 2012, was the first record of the animal in Bavaria.

Now the animal has struck near Huglfing.

© Bavarian Forest National Park

Normally, animal owners who suffer a loss from a large predator are compensated for the material damage - at Buchner's own estimate, that would be around 400 euros.

The problem: “The golden jackal is not one of the large predators and has a lower protection status than wolves, bears or lynxes.

Compensation for damage based on the compensation scheme for large carnivores is therefore not possible," said the LfU.

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First livestock tear in Bavaria by a golden jackal: new regulations?

Because it was the first proven livestock kill of a golden jackal in Bavaria, possible regulations for dealing with the golden jackal must first be examined, including the question of inclusion in the Bavarian hunting law, the spokesman said.

Buchner now hopes that the golden jackal has long since moved on.

The chances are good, after all a lot of time has passed since the end of April and nothing has happened since then.

Since then, his sheep have always been fenced in – but if the worst came to the worst, that would probably not be an insurmountable obstacle for the golden jackal.

You can find more current news from the Weilheim-Schongau district at Merkur.de/Weilheim.