Citizen Zoo’s Rewilding Podcast
Sep 30, 2026 · 36 min · 7 segments
This month, Lucas, Elliot and Digby look into four incredible stories of rewilding around the world. First, head to the Netherlands, where the government has recognised the golden jackal as a native…
Elliot NewtonHost
Digby WheelerHost
Lucas RousseauHost
What's this about? Yeah, so this is the news that in a bold and forward-thinking policy decision, the Dutch government has decided to take and reclassify the golden jackal as a native naturalized species as of July 26.
Actually, I get a bit confused with golden jackals, to be honest, but they are fascinating animals.
We've got the golden jackal, the black-backed jackal, which is a species you find out in East and Southern Africa.
But actually, those two African jackals are in a different genus called lapelae.
and actually aren't that closely related to the golden jackal where the golden jackal is more related to things like wolves and coyotes so these these these animals are sort of medium-sized wild canids they sort of fulfill the niche it's between the the sort of bigger than a fox smaller than a smaller than a wolf, they can weigh up to about 15 kilograms, something like that, and they have a huge range from Southeast Asia, across the Middle East, and into Europe.
And this is where this story becomes really interesting, because the European range is starting to expand, and this is what we're gonna sort of focus on a little bit in this story.
They eat a whole variety of species, from rodents to birds to reptiles, fruits and carrion, et cetera.
And yeah, and then they fulfill a sort of ecological role that's similar to that of a predator, but also a scavenger.
So in terms of, you mentioned briefly where they were found, their historic range, but how does a previously non-native species with sort of seemingly no historic evidence of native distribution, where did it come from in Europe? Where was it? Where did it used to be found?
What's this about? Yeah, so this is the news that in a bold and forward-thinking policy decision, the Dutch government has decided to take and reclassify the golden jackal as a native naturalized species as of July 26.
Actually, I get a bit confused with golden jackals, to be honest, but they are fascinating animals.
We've got the golden jackal, the black-backed jackal, which is a species you find out in East and Southern Africa.
But actually, those two African jackals are in a different genus called lapelae.
and actually aren't that closely related to the golden jackal where the golden jackal is more related to things like wolves and coyotes so these these these animals are sort of medium-sized wild canids they sort of fulfill the niche it's between the the sort of bigger than a fox smaller than a smaller than a wolf, they can weigh up to about 15 kilograms, something like that, and they have a huge range from Southeast Asia, across the Middle East, and into Europe.
And this is where this story becomes really interesting, because the European range is starting to expand, and this is what we're gonna sort of focus on a little bit in this story.
They eat a whole variety of species, from rodents to birds to reptiles, fruits and carrion, et cetera.
And yeah, and then they fulfill a sort of ecological role that's similar to that of a predator, but also a scavenger.
So in terms of, you mentioned briefly where they were found, their historic range, but how does a previously non-native species with sort of seemingly no historic evidence of native distribution, where did it come from in Europe? Where was it? Where did it used to be found?
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