Lanszki József - Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Magyarországon élő ragadozó emlősök táplálkozás-ökológiája - Natura Somogyiensis 4. (Kaposvár, 2002)

174 NATURA SOMOGYIENSIS Golden jackals settled back to the south-western part of Hungary during the last decade. Jackals living on the edge of their habitat range, mainly consumed small mammals during the winter and early spring (56%). Consumption of game carcass also played an important role in their diet (red-, roe- and fallow deer and wild boar - the proportion of them biomass consumed was 46% altogether), most important was the wild boar. Other taxa like birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and plants did not play a major role in the diet. Hunting of small game (hare, pheasant) was insignificant. The diet of red foxes living in the same area contained 36% small mammals and 49% game carcass (by biomass consumed). The diet composition of the jackal and the red fox did not differ substantially and their trophic niche overlap was high especially according to biomass data (72%). Individuals living in the central area of the jackals' habitat range in Hungary primarily consumed small mammals (their proportion of consumed biomass ranged between 83-97%, depending on the season), the main item in their diet was common vole. Based on live trapping of small mammals during the autumn jackals favoured common vole (Ej = 0.33), while avoided forest species, such as bank vole (E~ -0.59) and wood mouse species (Ej= -0.77). Consumption of ungulates (mainly carcasses) was increased at the end of spring and summer but even during this period they could only be regarded of secondary importance in the diet. The trophic niche breadth of the jackal was low regardless of the season due to the high proportion of small mammal consumption, which resulted in a small mammal specialist behaviour. Small mammals also dominated (80-94 %) in the diet of foxes lived in the same area. The diet composition of the jackals and foxes (coexisting the same habitats) were not significantly different, their trophic niche overlap varied between 76-94 % depending on the season. Regardless of the habitat and season an exceptionally high similarity could be observed between the diet composition and feeding habits of jackals and foxes. However, differences could be detected between jackals living on the edge and in the central area of their habitat range (the same phenomena can be stated concerning the foxes). This indicates that the characteristics of the habitats substantially determine the feeding habits of these carnivores. Both species can adapt well to the circumstances provided by a given habitat, which can lead to a diet characterised either by the consumption of considerable percentage of game carcass or of small mammals. The diet composition of jackals avoiding urban areas differs greatly from that of larger predators, their body size and hunting behaviour is between those of the wolf and the red fox, but closer to the red fox.