No.
Side-striped jackals (Canis adustus):
I think that it is very likely that some of the reports of “dog/fox hybrids” in Britain from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are actually these animals.
When the sun never set upon the British Empire, it was commonplace for creatures native to the far reaches of the realm to be imported as pets for menageries. If any of these animals escaped or were released into the countryside, it is very likely that they would be misidentified as dog/fox hybrids.
Side-striped jackals are in the genus Canis, which makes them close relatives of domestic dogs (although certainly not as closely related as dogs to wolves, coyotes, and golden jackals).
They have some fox-like features, especially that long tail, which is covered in thick fur and is tipped with white. They sometimes have a reddish tinge to their coat, which is somewhat reminiscent of that of a red fox.
Of course, red foxes (genus Vulpes) cannot hybridize with domestic dogs. I’ve seen dogs that look like foxes, and one breed of toy spitz is actually called a Volpino because of its similarity to the fox.
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I might be in the minority here, but I think we should move black-backed and side-striped jackals out of the genus Canis and back into Thous, the archaic genus for jackals and coyotes.
I say this because golden and Simien jackals (Ethiopian wolves) have both been found to be very close relatives of wolves and coyotes and are far more closely related to those animals than they are to black-backed and side-striped jackals.
I think it makes sense to put these two “Africa only” jackals into their own genus.
Media does blab alot, they don’t look into the real picture and identify what animal it is, they just say oh it looks like dog and it must be hybrid.
Has anyone else heard the romantic origin story of the Nova-Scotia Duck-Tolling Retrievers? According to this tale, they are descended from Dog-X-Fox crosses, the evidence supposedly being the breed’s ability to lure ducks close to shore by utilizing distracting play antics to mesmerize the curious ducks, a behaviour seen sometimes in foxes(the “tolling” part of their breed name). What these stories don’t seem to realize is that wolves and coyotes have also been reported to use this behavioural “trick”. I got into what almost turned into a heated discussion with an owner of this neat breed, who became rather livid when I tried to explain to him that dogs and foxes can’t hybridize–just too genetically different. He pointed out how lightly and “foxlike” his dog moved, and how it liked to sit in elevated spots moreso than other dogs–which it did, but that was behavioural similarities–NOT genetic links! I dropped it, though, as it was obvious this person loved the story too much to believe otherwise!
I’ve heard that very story. They actually are derived from English and Dutch decoy dogs (only the Dutch ones– the Kooikerhondje– still exist).
And Chesapeake Bay retrievers are supposedly part otter.
Ha! I hadn’t heard about Chessie’s being part otter before! The whole duck-tolling phenomenon is very interesting–not something we hear about in the U. S. much. I love David Hancock’s book(the dog historian, not the famous lurcher breeder!) “Heritage Of The Dog”, where he has some neat old photos of a duck-tolling dog at work, and the elaborate series of passages leading to the final duck trap–too much work, I suppose for people nowadays…..