Even as a study by the Sanjay Gandhi National Park shines more light on the lives of the once-considered elusive urban leopards of Mumbai, wildlife conservationists continue to be in the dark when it comes to golden jackals found in mangrove patches. To learn more about the wolf-like canids in and around Mumbai, the Mangrove Cell plans to launch a study, said officials.

Virendra Tiwari, additional principal chief conservator of forests, Mangrove Cell, said, “The Mangrove Foundation is in discussions with the Wildlife Conservation Society-INDIA to develop a project to study the occurrence and distribution of jackals in some mangroves areas of Mumbai Metropolitan Region. This is not exactly a population estimation exercise but a study to understand where the jackals occur in MMR and what is their habitat and distribution.”