May the 30th, 2025 – Jackals have made the gorgeous Kornati National Park in the Zadar archipelago home after swimming there, and it is causing enormous issues.
While foxes are commonplace all over Europe, not many realise that another small wild dog calls Croatia’s nature home – the jackal. These small, grey brown dogs are keen predators and while they are excellent for rodent control, they can cause havoc if they locate livestock. Unfortunately, the jackals who have turned up in the Kornati National Park are doing precisely that.
As Morski writes, sheep are one of the “main characters” of the stunning Kornati islands, but in recent years they have been faced with the surprise arrival of a very intelligent canine predator. Jackals have decided to swim to the Kornati National Park, and local sheep owners who are trying to preserve the timeless tradition of sheep wandering the islands are terrified. The reaction to the jackals has been prompt, with the Kornati National Park currently hunting the dogs, but locals are demanding a faster and stronger response from the institutions. The situation is so concerning, even Minister Marija Vučković visited the islands.
Four years ago, the jackals swam over the the Kornati National Park from Dugi Otok and began breeding. Since then, the jackals have multiplied and have been decimating the sheep. One Kornati sheep owner, Jakov, has had several of his own sheep taken by jackals.
“The other day I let the sheep out to graze near the woods, and five of my lambs were slaughtered by jackals that very morning,” Jakov Šikić, the owner of a family farm on the Kornati islands, revealed to HRT.
From his initial 200 sheep, he now only owns 30. Naturally, Jakov attempted to put the jackals off the herd and protect them using Turkish Kangal dogs, a very large protective breed known for their bravery and how seriously they take their job of guarding livestock. Turkish Kangals would have easily dealt with any jackals, but with tourism on the Kornati National Park, having such large and potentially dangerous dogs roaming simply isn’t safe.
Jakov stated that having some sort of proper help to buy more sheep would be helpful, but added that buying more of them just to have them killed by jackals isn’t exactly helping solve the problem. He has even toyed with the idea of paying for the presence of a shepherd.
In a bid to solve the jackal problem together, the aforementioned minister came to visit the family farms on the islands.
“I think we could offer support for the renewal of the herds, support for their maintenance, the clearing of the terrain and, initially, support for current costs. Those costs include salaries,” stated Marija Vučković, Minister of Environmental Protection and Green Transition.
Around 160 jackals (and counting) have already been shot by trained marksmen in the Kornati National Park during the current hunt. However, they are difficult to fully exterminate because they breed and reproduce quickly when they have enough food to sustain them. At the same time, the number of sheep has halved as a result of their presence.
“The key problems alongside the sheep issue are that biodiversity on the Kornati islands is now under great threat. Jackals are very opportunistic predators. Livestock farmers are increasingly giving up on traditional sheep breeding here,” warned Agata Kovačev, a biologist and manager at the Kornati National Park.
The Kornati National Park’s current plan is to continue monitoring the number of jackals living in the park area, and then implement specific measures and support activities to remove them humanely,” stated Agata Kovačev. Doing this is very important for the protection of the nature of these islands.
Traditional free-range sheep breeding, as has always occurred on the Kornati islands, should therefore be fully protected. If this is not done and the herds disappear, the local people will disappear too.
