Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Jackal

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Kingdom
  
Class
  
Family
  
Phylum
  
Chordata

Order
  
Speed
  
Springbok: 88 km/h

Jackal httpsazanimalscommediaanimalsimagesorigi

Genus
  
Included in CanisLinnaeus, 1758

Mass
  
Side-striped jackal: 6.5 – 14 kg, Springbok: 33 – 48 kg

Height
  
Side-striped jackal: 35 – 50 cm, Springbok: 70 – 90 cm

Length
  
Side-striped jackal: 69 – 81 cm, Springbok: 1.5 – 2 m

Gestation period
  
Side-striped jackal: 57 – 70 days, Springbok: 168 days

Tail length
  
Side-striped jackal: 30 – 41 cm, Springbok: 15 – 30 cm

Representative species
  
Golden jackal, Side‑striped jackal, Springbok

Jackal on the hunt gangster jackals


The jackal is a small omnivorous mammal of the genus Canis, which also includes the wolf and dog. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for 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 south-central Eurasia.

Contents

Jackal Jackal Animal Planet

Jackals and coyotes (sometimes called the "American jackal") 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.

Jackal Jackal African Wildlife Foundation

Their most common social unit is 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.

Jackal Jackal Facts History Useful Information and Amazing Pictures

Jackal animal style official full stream


Etymology

The English word "jackal" derives from Persian شغال shoghāl, cognate with Sanskrit सृगालः / sṛgālaḥ.

Taxonomy and relationships

Jackal Jackal Wikipedia

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

Jackal Blackbacked jackal Wikipedia

Similarities between jackals and coyotes led Lorenz Oken, in the third volume of his Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte (1815), to place these species into a new separate genus, Thos, named 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.

Jackal African golden jackals are actually golden wolves Science AAAS

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.

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 separate distinct branch of canids, while the golden jackal, belongs to a branch that includes the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis), the coyote, and Canis lupus, the grey wolf/domestic dog. Because of this deep divergence between the black-backed/side-striped jackal and the golden jackal (as well as the rest of the "wolf-like" canids), it has been proposed to change the two species' generic name from Canis to Lupulella.


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".

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.

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.
  • 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.
  • 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 a hundred years life of a jackal (Tipu Sultan)".
  • Multiple jackals are featured prominently throughout the Swiss Family Robinson.
  • References

    Jackal Wikipedia


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