Natural History

Posted in wildlife | Tagged black-backed jackal, Jackal | 5 Comments

5 Responses

1. on March 11, 2010 at 1:48 am Bill

   Amazing, watched it twice. Two important questions for R and others:

   1. What breeds/types of dogs can a jackal’s speed be compared to?
   2. Which is cuter, baby gazelle, or jackal puppy?

   
   
   • on March 11, 2010 at 2:11 am retrieverman

     1. I have no answer. The Russians have a breed of sniffer dog derived from crossing dogs and golden jackals. Golden jackals are actually very similar to coyotes (I have hard time telling them apart), and they can interbreed with dogs/dingoes, wolves, and coyotes. The other two are found only in Africa, and can’t interbreed with the rest. I think they should be moved out of the genus Canis and back into the now defunct genus Thous, which once included all jackals and the coyote.
     2. I think side-striped jackal puppies are very cute: http://img2.photographersdirect.com/img/12366/wm/pd304193.jpg

     Side-striped jackals always have white-tipped tails, and I suspect escaped individuals have been mistaken for dog/fox hybrids.

     
     
2. on March 11, 2010 at 2:35 am Sengimage

   I always thought Basenji are the dog world equivalent of the Jackal. Same gait and same paws with webbed fore-toes. Extremely fast.

   
   
   • on March 11, 2010 at 2:43 am retrieverman

     Maybe.

     But basenjis are leopard food.

     
     
     • on March 11, 2010 at 1:35 pm Sengimage

       True, but they are also very good pack hunters of small game.

       The fact that they only come into season once a year as opposed to twice also suggests they have wilder roots than the average dog.

       
       

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