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Golden Jackals Ate Fruits or Seeds From 20 of 25 Woody Plant Species in Trabzon

Golden jackal in natural habitat at Nallıhan Bird Paradise, Türkiye
Research · Ecology

Golden jackals (Canis aureus) consumed fruits or seeds from 20 of the 25 woody plant species with edible produce recorded in a study landscape in Trabzon, Türkiye. The roughly 426-hectare area included agricultural land, forest and suburban habitat, and was studied from January 2023 to June 2024.

Researchers first used camera traps to identify jackals feeding on fruits or seeds, then collected and analysed 21 scat samples. The study therefore combined direct observations of plant feeding with evidence from analysed scat. The 20-of-25 result describes the number of locally available woody plant species detected as food; it does not mean that woody plants made up 80% of the jackals’ total diet or that all 20 species were eaten equally often.

The 20 recorded woody plants included hazel (Corylus maxima), cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), date-plum (Diospyros lotus), strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa), walnut (Juglans regia), fig (Ficus carica), mulberries, plum, apple, rose, raspberry, pear, medlar, hawthorn and grapevine. Only five of the 25 woody species producing edible fruits or seeds in the study area were not detected in the jackal diet.

The authors conclude that golden jackals fed on nearly all fruit- or seed-bearing woody plants recorded in the area. The study documents broad use of woody plant foods across a mixed agricultural, forest and suburban landscape, highlighting the significant role of these foods in the species’ local diet.

Sources and image credit

  1. Woody Plant Species in the Diet of the Golden Jackal (Canis aureus Linnaeus, 1758) in Trabzon, TürkiyePrimary research article published 1 August 2026. The study covered approximately 426 ha of agricultural, forest and suburban habitat in Trabzon between January 2023 and June 2024. Camera trapping first identified fruit or seed use and 21 scat samples were analysed. Of 25 woody plant species with edible fruits or seeds recorded in the area, 20 were consumed by golden jackals. The authors conclude that fruit- and seed-bearing woody plants have a significant role in the species’ diet in this landscape.

Image: Adnan Bozkurt — golden jackal (Canis aureus) photographed at Nallıhan/Davutoğlan Bird Paradise in Ankara Province, Türkiye, 18 May 2021; Wikimedia Commons. Representative Turkish species image; not a jackal from the Trabzon diet study. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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