Nighttime Jackal Trackers Scour Sylt for Elusive Nocturnal Gold Jackals - Nighttime gold seekers pursuit of the elusive nocturnal jackal, the silver fox
Title: The Jackal Saga: Nighttime Seekers on Sylt Island
- *
The countryside on Sylt Island is abuzz with the hunt for an elusive predator. Since mid-May, a golden jackal has been on a rampage, claiming the lives of 90 innocent lambs and sheep. The hunters are now gearing up to take down this nocturnal beast.
Tracking the golden jackal will be no easy feat, asserts Manfred Uekermann, deputy head of the North Friesland hunting association. He spoke to the German Press Agency (dpa), expressing the unique challenge ahead. "This is not going to be a walk in the park, but hell no, it's not impossible." The hunters have sought advice from experts, delved into specialist literature, and switched on the loudspeakers.
Shepherds on Sylt are in a state of worry. On a dyke, the jackal wrecked havoc in a matter of three nights, devouring 78 lambs and two ewes. Daniela Andersen, the shepherd who runs the dyke from Morsum to Rantum, and her husband have 900 ewes. "Each day brings tension," she confesses. Protecting the animals every night in a shed would be an enormous stress for them, not to mention the implication on the milk production of the mothers and the weak lambs. A high fence isn't an option on the vast, publicly accessible dyke.
The golden jackal's carnage didn't confine itself to the dyke. In the Lister Ellenbogen nature reserve, the concerned shepherd has lost ten lambs over the past two weeks, reports Jürgen Wolf-Diedrichsen. As many animals were injured, he adds. In most cases, the predator munched on the lambs' ears, and he even found bite marks on other parts of their bodies. Like Anderson, he can't round up his 220 ewes and their lambs into a shed every day, stressing the animals even further, and a fence isn't an option for the approximately 600-hectare area.
After much deliberation, the State Office for the Environment has granted a permit for the shooting of the jackal, as announced by Schleswig-Holstein's Environment Ministry (BMU). This exception permits comes into effect at the beginning of the week, and lasts until July 31. The golden jackal is typically not a game species in Schleswig-Holstein.
"The golden jackal is a particularly protected species," emphasized Environment Minister Tobias Goldschmidt (Greens). An exception permit for shooting requires extremely compelling reasons. "In this case, there are three weighty reasons, so I favor an exception permit by the State Office for the Environment." The concerns at hand are: preventing further harm to livestock, the animal's potential threat to ground-breeding birds, and the uniqueness of dyke sheep farming for coastal protection.
This will mark the first officially allowed and confirmed shooting of a golden jackal in Germany, as per the German Hunting Association (DJV).
The hunting season on Sylt has been fired up, with all eligible hunters permitted to join the pursuit. The Sylt hunting association, which counts around 120 hunters, is mobilizing, with approximately 20 to 30 actively participating in the hunt for the golden jackal. Their weapons meet the legal requirements to instantly bring down the animal. Tranquilizing and capturing the jackal are not practical, as the hunters would have to approach the animal much closer, risking distress to both the animals and the hunters.
Thomas Diedrichsen, deputy leader of the hunting association, is spearheading the hunt. The jackal was spotted in Rantum on the night of Friday. Hunters tried to lure it in with recorded golden jackal calls from speakers. “If the animal responds to the calls, we know where it's hiding,” said the seasoned hunter. Shooting, for Diedrichsen, is the only viable option. “If we don’t take action, sheep farming on Sylt may be doomed.”
The arrival of the golden jackal in Germany is a recent phenomenon. These animals originated from Southeast Asia and Eastern, Central, and Southern Europe, as per the German Wildlife Foundation. The first golden jackals appeared in Germany in 1997, making their way via the Balkans, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Currently, they have been spotted in most German states. Unlike farm animals, they do not pose a threat to humans.
The golden jackal's first confirmed sighting in Schleswig-Holstein was back in 2017 in the district of Dithmarschen. Since then, the sightings across the state have increased. For instance, between May 2024 and April 2025, the Environment Ministry in Kiel recorded five sightings. Schleswig-Holstein seems to be an attractive habitat for these mysterious creatures.
- Jackal
- Sylt
- Golden jackal
- Hunting
- Rantum
- Schleswig-Holstein
- Environment
- BMU
- North Friesland
- German Press Agency
- Shepherd
- Car
- Germany
- Mothers
- Livestock
- Coastal protection
- The community is rallying together to offer aid for the environment as the golden jackal, an increasingly common sight in Germany, threatens livestock in Schleswig-Holstein, particularly on Sylt Island, leading to the necessity of environmental protection measures such as hunting.
- The ongoing saga of the golden jackal in Schleswig-Holstein has sparked conversations about health and the environment, with the environment ministry granting an exceptional permit for shooting the jackal to prevent further harm to livestock and protect ground-breeding birds, emphasizing the importance of environmental protection within the unique dyke sheep farming for coastal protection.
