O. Gy. Dely szerk.: Vertebrata Hungarica 22. (Budapest, 1984)

Demeter, A.: Recent records of rare or non-residental large carniovores in Hungary 65-72. o.

cially harsh winters that forced the animals resident in Czechoslovakia and the eastern part of the Soviet Union to range further in search of prey. In the 1970s wolves were killed near the Hungarian-USSR border (PLÁVECZ 1976, VÖRÖS & S Z AT H MARY 1977), and another kill in the Bakony Mts, widely publicised in the press, proved to be an extremely large feral Alsatian dog (FODOR 1979). A detailed analysis of the distribution of the records of occurrence and of the craniometric data of the specimens from the last few decades is being carried out by S. FARAGÓ (pers. comm.), whose preliminary results suggest that certain "corridors" via which wolves enter Hungary can be recognized . Of the two recent specimens that I have been able to examine, the one from Háromhuta is especially Interesting In that the animal is a young one, was just about to shed its deciduous dentition. Its age when it was killed can be put at about 4-5 months. It was mistaken for a feral dog and shot in the company of a similar-aged individual, probably Its Utter-mate, that escaped a similar fate. Earlier that year In January the tracks of one large canld and another smaller one had been seen In the snow, likely to be those of a male and a female wolf. There was an accumulation of bones at the site where the young wolf was killed, undoubtedly the hiding place of the family where the parents fed their young. This fact, and the finding of the pair of tracks indicate that the young wolves were born and raised at this locality, something that had not happened In Hungary for many years

. After the first version of this paper had been submitted, another wolf was killed In the Zemplén Mts on 26 January, 1984 (IVÁNCSICS 1984). I have not been able to examine this specimen, but it is reported to be a full-grown female with a condylo-basal length of 255 mm, probably the mother of the juvenile specimen. There is a mounted specimen of an old male wolf exhibited In the guest-house at Kőkapu.

This example was found dead in the late 1960s In the same area where apparently the wolf established Itself as breeding. The old male had been known to be resident In the area for a number of years but could not be hunted down because of his eluslveness. The specimen from Bélapátfalva, from the foothills of the Bükk Mts, Is a very large male (Table 1). Initially it was mistaken for a feral dog and was only by chance recognized as a wolf. The present status of the wolf in Europe is discussed by SMITH & VAN WIJNGAARDEN (1981), who did not Include any Hungarian records. The geographical positions of the recent Hungarian records show that the specimens had most likely originated from Czechoslovakia, or In the case of the animals In the Zemplén Mts, possibly but not likely from the Soviet Union. In Czechoslovakia wolf numbers increased to a high level in the late 1960s (when stragglers became notlcably commoner In Hungary), but in the early 1970s there was a significant decline (HELL 1974, PIMLOTT 1975). The species received legal protection In 1975 In the form of a closed hunting season from March 1 to September 15. As a result, the number of wolves increased from 40-60 in 1974 to 130-150 in 1982 (VOSKAR 1983). The population pressure resulting from this numerical Increase was probably the causal factor that forced the wolves to disperse. Golden jackal (

Canls aureus L.) Specimens. - HNHM reg. no. 83.66.1., cf, skull (skin in the possession of the collector), Paks, January, 1981. Coll.: L. SÁFRÁNY; HNHM 83.64.1., d*, skull (skin prepared Into a rug In the possession of the collector). Gyarmatpuszta, 25 May, 1983. Coll. S. KOCSIS. The last previous specimen of the jackal obtained by the Hungarian Natural History Museum was shot at Derecske In 1942 (SZUNYOGHY 1957). There had been much controversy over the identity of the so-called "reed-wolf of the Hungarian language and folk-lore (ÉHIK 1937, NAGY 1956, 1959, SZUNYOGHY 1957, 1959a, b). Finally, after much heated debate and even personal accusations, the Issue has been settled In favour of the jackal. For 41 years there had been no record of the jackal In Hungary, when in May 1983 the specimen from Gyarmatpuszta was reported and brought for identification to the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. The measurements of the skull of the specimen are larger than those of the skull on which ÉHIK (1937) based his description of the subspecies C. aureus hungarlcus

, up to then the largest example recorded for the jackal. After a popular account of the kill was published In the hunting magazine Nimród (HOMONNAY 1983), there were rumours among hunters that there might be another specimen shot a few years earlier. I tracked down and verified this piece of information. I contacted the game-keeper who had shot the jackal but did not publicise his kill for fear of penalty. This animal was killed whilst approaching the carrion of a roe-deer. This example Is even larger than the previous one (Table 1). The habitats in which the two jackals were obtained are strikingly similar: low undulating hilly