How the golden jackal conquered Europe

Almost entirely unknown on the continent, the golden jackal has quietly overtaken the wolf to become Europe’s most populous wild canine. James Gorman goes in search of the elusive dog

There are now over 100,000 golden jackals in Europe, as the population has boomed since the 1950s (Getty)

On a hill above Trieste, Italy, at the western edge of Slovenia, I hear the golden jackals howl.

This is my second night out with Miha Krofel, a conservation biologist at the University of Ljubljana, driving rural roads through farmland and forests.

The night before, along with two volunteer researchers – one a photographer who has become something of a jackal specialist – we visited four locations where Krofel had heard jackals.