Tudora village terrorized: Jackals steal livestock
Residents of Tudora village, Ștefan Vodă district, are living in constant fear! Jackals are prowling homesteads and stealing livestock. Locals say there's been a significant increase in these predators lately, with some estimates suggesting their numbers have surged by more than 25-fold.
The only viable solution in this situation remains controlled hunting.
"The jackals' cries can be heard practically every night. They usually hide in forested areas or strips of forest, like the one behind me, for example. Tudora villagers say the jackal problem has been ongoing for some time, but their numbers have surged in the last five years," reports Moldova1 journalist Ana Nemțeanu.
Victor Uța says jackals are heard more often near the village outskirts.
"They're by the Nistru riverbank, and also on the village outskirts, where the quarry and ravines are. There are many jackals, especially in the evenings. They sound like they're whimpering, not barking. Like they're crying," says Victor Uța, a resident of Tudora village.
For locals, jackals have become a real burden. They're taking precautions to prevent their properties from being attacked.
"We close the doors for the poultry. We also have rabbits; all the cages are locked. This is especially true in spring and autumn. Now, with this heat, I hear them howling less."
"There was one incident. I had some shashlik on my bike, and when I looked – my bike was on the ground. I thought a car had hit it and there'd be trouble. When I looked more closely, the bike wasn't even there. They took it and dragged it into the reeds."
"I found photos of jackals online and showed them to the children: what they look like, their color, their characteristics, what they feed on, and where they came from."
The local mayor's office has already received reports from six families who've lost domestic animals.
"We held meetings in the neighborhoods, especially for those living on the village's periphery. They submitted requests for the local public administration to take action, because these animals enter the village at night. Someone even had some of their poultry taken," states Veronica Mocan, Mayor of Tudora village.
Specialists emphasize that the jackal population has grown rapidly, and hunting remains the only solution to control their numbers.
"The number of jackals is growing in a geometric progression. We observe this from annual culls. For example, if almost five years ago we culled up to 30 specimens, this year we had around 800 jackals culled," says Mihail Șcerbliuc, a wildlife specialist.
"The latest evaluations from spring show a population of over 3,000 jackals. In Romania, if in 2011 there were 3,000-4,000 jackals, the 2018 data – because there's nothing more recent – showed already 15,000 jackals," says Anatolie Savin, a zoology specialist.
According to zoology specialists, the presence of jackals in the Republic of Moldova was officially confirmed in 2010.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
