Jackal

Thos redirects here. For the beast in heraldry, see theow.

Jackal
A black-backed jackal at Cape Cross, Namibia
A side-striped jackal
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Canidae
Genus:	Included in Canis Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Golden jackal, Canis aureus Side-striped jackal Canis adustus Black-backed jackal Canis mesomelas

The jackal is a small carnivorous mammal of the genus Canis, which also includes the wolf, dog, and coyote. While the word "jackal" has historically been used of many small canids, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backed jackal and side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of northern Africa and south-central Eurasia.

Jackals and coyotes (sometimes called the "American jackal"^[1]) are opportunistic omnivores, predators of small- to medium-sized animals and proficient scavengers. Their long legs and curved canine teeth are adapted for hunting small mammals, birds, and reptiles, and their large feet and fused leg bones give them a physique well-suited for long-distance running, capable of maintaining speeds of 16 km/h (9.9 mph) for extended periods of time. Jackals are crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk.

Their most common social unit is that of a monogamous pair which defends its territory from other pairs by vigorously chasing intruding rivals and marking landmarks around the territory with their urine and feces. The territory may be large enough to hold some young adults which stay with their parents until they establish their own territories. Jackals may occasionally assemble in small packs, for example, to scavenge a carcass, but they normally hunt either alone or in pairs.

Etymology

The English word "jackal" derives, via Turkish çakal, from Persian شغال shaghāl, itself ultimately from or cognate with Sanskrit śṛgālaḥ.^[2][3]

Taxonomy and relationships

The golden jackal is more closely related to wolves and coyotes than to other jackal species.

The taxonomy of the jackals has evolved with scientific understanding about how they are related on the canid family tree.

Similarities between jackals and coyotes led Lorenz Oken, in 1816, in the third volume of his Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte, to place these species into a new separate genus, Thos, after the classical Greek word θώς "jackal", but his theory had little immediate impact on taxonomy at the time. Angel Cabrera in his 1932 monograph on the mammals of Morocco, questioned whether or not the presence of a cingulum on the upper molars of the jackals and its corresponding absence in the rest of Canis could justify a subdivision of the genus Canis. In practice, Cabrera chose the undivided-genus alternative and referred to the jackals as Canis instead of Thos.^[4]

Oken's Thos theory was revived in 1914 by Edmund Heller, who embraced the separate genus theory. Heller's names and the designations he gave to various jackal species and subspecies live on in current taxonomy, although the genus has been changed from Thos to Canis.^[4]

Modern research has clarified the relationships among the "jackal" species. Despite their similarities, jackals do not all stem from the same branch on the canid family tree. The side-striped jackal and black-backed jackal belong to a branch of canids that includes the dhole and African wild dog, while the golden jackal, on the other hand, belongs to a branch which includes the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis), the coyote, and Canis lupus, the grey wolf/domestic dog.^[5]

The intermediate size and shape of the Ethiopian wolf has at times led it to be regarded as a jackal, thus it has been called the "red jackal" or the "Simien jackal", but it has more often been considered and called a "wolf".

Species

Species	Trinomial authority	Description	Range
Side-striped jackal Canis adustus	Sundevall, 1847	Primarily residing in wooded areas, unlike other jackal species, it is the least aggressive of the jackals, rarely preying on large mammals.[6]	Central and southern Africa
Golden jackal Canis aureus	Linnaeus, 1758	The heaviest of the jackals, it is the only species to live outside Africa. Although often grouped with the other jackals, genetic and morphological research indicate the golden jackal is more closely related to the gray wolf and the coyote.[5][7]	Northern Africa, southeastern Europe, the Middle East, western Asia, and South Asia
Black-backed jackal Canis mesomelas	Schreber, 1775	The most lightly built jackal, it is considered to be the oldest living member of the genus Canis.[8] It is the most aggressive of the jackals, being known to attack animal prey many times its own weight, and it has more quarrelsome intrapack relationships.[9]	Southern Africa and eastern coast of Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia

Interbreeding with dogs

Experiments in Germany with breeding poodles and golden jackals have produced hybrids. The results showed that, unlike wolf–dog hybrids, jackal–dog hybrids show a decrease in fertility, significant communication problems, and an increase of genetic disorders after three generations of interbreeding, much like coydogs.^[10]

In Russia, golden jackals are one of the founder breeds of the Sulimov dog, a working dog owned exclusively by Aeroflot and used for bomb detection in airport security.

Folklore, mythology and literature

• Like foxes and coyotes, jackals are often depicted as clever sorcerers in the myths and legends of their regions.
• Anubis (Ancient Greek: Ἄνουβις) is the Greek name for a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion.
• The jackal (likely the golden jackal, given its present range) is mentioned approximately 14 times in the Bible. It is frequently used as a literary device to illustrate desolation, loneliness and abandonment, with reference to its habit of living in the ruins of former cities and other areas abandoned by humans.
• Serer religion and creation myth posits the jackal was among the first animals created by Roog, the supreme deity of the Serer people.^[11]
• Pablo Neruda's poem "I Explain a Few Things" describes Francisco Franco and his allies as "...Jackals that the jackal would drive off...".
• In Rudyard Kipling's collection of stories The Jungle Book, the mad cowardly jackal Tabaqui feasts on the scraps of Shere Khan and the Seeonee wolf tribe.
• In the King James translation of the Bible, Isaiah 13:21 refers to 'doleful creatures', which some commentators suggest are either jackals or hyenas.^[12]
• Literature in India and Pakistan compares jackal with lion in terms of courage. A famous saying is "One day life of a lion is better than hundred years life of jackal (Tipu Sultan)".
• Multiple jackals are featured prominently throughout the Swiss Family Robinson.

Footnotes