Overview

• Known for surplus killing, the gold jackal has killed around 90 sheep and lambs on Sylt since May 19.
• Schleswig-Holstein’s Landesamt für Umwelt granted a species protection exception permit on June 5 allowing hunters to shoot the animal until July 31.
• About 20 to 30 licensed hunters are actively searching Sylt’s fields to carry out what would be the first government-sanctioned killing of a gold jackal in Germany.
• The WWF has challenged the permit’s justification, saying there is no robust evidence of negative impacts on ground-nesting birds or coastal dike protection.
• Genetic tests and camera footage confirmed the predator as a gold jackal that likely reached the island via the Hindenburgdamm land connection.