Kingdom Animalia Family Canidae Genus Canis Order Carnivores | Class Mammalia Phylum Chordata Rank Subspecies | |
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Similar Canis, Sri Lankan jackal, Senegalese wolf, Common jackal, European jackal | ||
Syrian jackal singing
The Syrian jackal (Canis aureus syriacus) is a subspecies of golden jackal native to the eastern Mediterranean region from the coast of Lebanon between Beirut and Tripoli. Jackals were common in Lebanon and Israel in the 1930s–40s, but their populations were reduced during a zealous anti-rabies campaign. Its current status is difficult to ascertain, due to possible hybridisation with pariah dogs and African golden wolves. Because of this hybridization, the Syrian jackal displays far more haplotype diversity than its European counterpart. The Syrian jackal is distinguished by its brown ears, and each hair of the back consists of four distinct colours; white at the root, then black, above which foxy-red, and the point black. It weighs 5–12 kg (11–27 lb), and has a body length of 60–90 cm (24–35 in). Its head is 14.8–18 cm (5.8–7 in), and its tail is 20–30 cm (8–12 in).
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In Jewish mythology, jackals are portrayed as infanticidal animals which would even kill their own young whilst nursing, were it not for God veiling the mother's eyes. Jackals are occasionally referenced in the Bible. The Authorized King James Version never mentions jackals, though this could be due to a translation error. The AVs of Isiah, Micah, Job and Malachi mentions "wild beasts" and "dragons" crying in desolate houses and palaces. The original Hebrew words used are lyim (howler) and tan respectively. According to biologist Michael Bright, tan is more likely referring to jackals than dragons, as the word is frequently used throughout the AV to describe a howling animal associated with desolation and abandoned habitations, which is consistent with the golden jackal's vast vocal repertoire and its occasional habit of living in abandoned buildings. Jeremiah makes frequent references to jackals by using the word shu'al, which can mean both jackal and fox. Although the AV translates the word as fox, the behaviour described is more consistent with jackals, as shown in the books of Lamentations and Psalms in which references are made to the shu'al's habit of eating corpses in battlefields. David W. Macdonald theorizes that due to the general scarcity and elusiveness of foxes in Israel, the author of the Book of Judges may have actually been describing the much more common golden jackals when narrating how Samson tied torches to the tails of 300 foxes to make them destroy the vineyards of the Philistines.