Rehabilitation and release of orphan golden jackal pups (Canis aureus)

Hand-raising wildlife orphans require expertise and knowledge of the speciesconcerned. In this paper, we describe the successful hand-raising of threegolden jackal pups subsequently released back to the wild. The pups werenursed using a commercial canine milk replacer for puppies. The averageweight gain of the jackal pups was 3.96 g (±0.32) per day during the milkfeeding period and 22.71 g (±1.03) per day after they were weaned and solidfood was given. They were housed in a medium-sized cage (48 × 36 × 36 in)with a refuge den until they were 3–4 months old and then moved to a largeroutdoor enclosure (22 × 10 × 10 ft). To create fidelity to the release site, theywere held in a transit cage (8 × 6 × 6 ft) for 36 days at the release site. Theywere about a year old at the time of release. Two of them (male and female)were radio-collared, but the collars failed the day after release. The femalesmoved away from the male four days post-release, as evidenced by the cameratrap images. The male was sighted two months post-release with the damagedcollar on, but the fate of the two females could not be ascertained. Data on thepost-release survival and ranging pattern could not be established due to thecompromised radio collars.