Abstract
The golden jackal is a locally common mammal species widely distributed along the Black Sea and other coastal regions of Turkey. Between February 2009 and April 2010, we conducted a camera trap study in Artvin, northeastern Turkey that revealed the presence of ten medium or large mammal species. We report here the first ever photographic evidence of a melanistic golden jackal, along with its normal-colored probable mate. Dark fur color in wolves has been shown to be historically transferred from domestic dogs, and interbreeding among wolves, coyotes and dogs is well documented. However, we consider this an unlikely mechanism for the present observation, and instead suggest independent mutation as the source of this possibly adaptive trait.
Financial and vehicle support for this study was provided by the Kaçkar Mountains Sustainable Forest Use and Conservation Project and by the Nature Conservation Centre (DKM). We thank XII. Regional Directorate of Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs for their support, Yaşar Kuşdili for acting as a guide during fieldwork, Scottie Westfall for providing an anecdotal reference and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable criticism.
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- Book Reviews
- Book reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Masthead
- Original Studies
- Age-gender feeding differences in dwarf blue sheep, Pseudois schaeferi (Cetartiodactyla, Bovidae) magnified by the expansion of an invasive plant species
- Trophic niche of two sympatric frugivorous bat species in a periurban area of southern Brazil
- Feeding on the edge: the diet of the hazel dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius (Linnaeus 1758) on the northern periphery of its distributional range
- Asian badger (Meles leucurus, Mustelidae, Carnivora) habitat selection in the Xiaoxing’anling Mountains, Heilongjiang Province, China
- Habitat selection, philopatry and spatial segregation in rural Irish hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus)
- Population dynamics of Akodon montensis and Oligoryzomys nigripes in an Araucaria forest of Southern Brazil
- The impact of body mass at birth on postnatal growth in captive Kuhl’s pipistrelle, Pipistrellus kuhlii (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
- Differences in population parameters of Rattus norvegicus in urban and rural habitats of central Argentina
- Assessing rodent community responses in disturbed environments of the Chilean Patagonia
- Skull ontogeny of Lycalopex culpaeus (Carnivora: Canidae): description of cranial traits and craniofacial sutures
- Short Notes
- Multiple paternity in Asian black bear Ursus thibetanus (Ursidae, Carnivora) determined by microsatellite analysis
- First record of a melanistic golden jackal (Canis aureus, Canidae) from Turkey
- New records of the Spectacled Slender Opossum Marmosops ocellatus (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) with comments on its geographic distribution limits
- Second record of the pale brown ghost bat Diclidurus isabella (Thomas, 1920) (Chiroptera, Emballonuridae) from Brazil and range extension into southwestern Brazilian Amazonia
- Observation of successful mobbing of an insectivorous bat, Taphozous nudiventris (Emballonuridae), on an avian predator, Tyto alba (Tytonidae)
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