Cape black-backed jackal
So just for the record, I will admit that I am wrong about the existence of black-backed jackal dog hybrids, if someone can provide me a link to a study or record of a hybrid that has some form of DNA evidence– either a mitochondrial DNA or a y chromosome analysis will suffice. I will also accept any nuclear DNA studies of African dogs that find evidence of crossing with either of these jackals.
If someone can find the same evidence for a side-striped jackal and dog hybrid, I will also admit that the African-only jackals can hybridize with dogs.
Side striped jackal
I’ve heard it claimed that these two jackals will cross with dogs or wolves or some other variant of Canis lupus, but I’ve never read of record of them breeding in any nineteenth century menagerie.
Hybrid in the genus Canis have occurred between all things that are currently part of Canis lupus, including the red wolf (whatever it is), Ethiopian wolves (which are not technically jackals), golden jackals, and the coyote. Verified hybrids have been found with all of these animals.
As far as I know and as far as I’ve looked, the two Africa-only jackals have not hybridized with any of these animals.
That’s probably because they are the two oldest species of true dog (tribe Canini) that are still in existence today.
And they are more genetically distant from domestic dogs than dholes and African wild dogs are– and we all know that neither of those can hybridize with domestic dogs.
Indian pariah dogs have been seen running with dhole packs, but no one has ever reported a dhole-dog.
I guess I’ve made a zoological challenge.
I’d like to see real evidence of a hybrid between a dog and one of these jackals.
All I have received in the past have been photographs and someone saying these are jackal-dogs.
However, as we know, one can easily find dogs with virtually any phenotype in any randomly breeding population.
It does not mean that these dogs have jackal in them. German shepherds are more closely related to mastiffs than they are to wolves, but it is still widely claimed that they are derived from wolf hybrids.
I stand by what I say about these two jackals interbreeding with dogs.
But if someone can provide me some kind of DNA proof that a hybrid exists between a dog and either of these two jackals, then I will accept the correction.
The black-backed jackal really varies in terms of its mitochondrial DNA from all the other species of jackal, including the side-striped jackal, its closest relative.
I don’t think we have a very good grasp on how unique the black-backed jackal actually is.
It superficially looks like a small coyote or golden jackal with a grizzled blanket on its back.
It’s not.
It’s very unique.
I have called them the closest thing to naturally occurring Jack Russell Terriers, because they are very scrappy with each other. The Southern African or Cape black-backed jackals are typically just a little bit bigger than a terrier.
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BTW, in a future post, I will make the case that the two subpopulations of black-backed jackal might be separate species.
I’m not going to do that here.
I don’t know if anyone has looked into this possibility from a genetic standpoint, but in terms of phenotype and behavior, the East African and Cape subspecies are quite different from one another– and probably have been separated for a long time.
Where have you heard about black-backed jackal/dog hybrids from? Because I’ve spent some time in Africa (both in the north and in East Africa) and I’ve never encountered anyone who claimed they interbred with dogs. Oh, there are breeds that people claim are descended from jackals, but there’s no proof there other than “generic canid phenotype” for a pointed muzzle, prick ears, and a bushy tail. There’s ready interbreeding with the Ethiopian wolf, certainly (much to that species’ detriment), but not _Canis mesomelas_.
We Know that dogs, Jackals, Coyotes, and Wolves have 78 chromosomes. I too would like proof that South African Jackals have crossed with dogs either naturally or with intervention, though intervention is more what I had in mind. I believe something happened among the English hunt terrier breeds that made it desirable to cross certain breeds even though it radically changed their conformation and this for just a fraction of some special gene. What was that gene? Where did it originate? In the 1980s a certain breed “re-emerged” as a classic English breed after a century of not hunting at all. Whatever it acquired appears to have been given with vengeance to the breed from which it diverged in the Victorian age. Since it was not the only breed to be radically changed, I have a hunch that this special something was not even British in origin and other hunting breeds just couldn’t be left out. All this could be under the guise of the desire for the genes of an unpopular and mysterious English breed from Northern England and complicated by the 2004 Hunting Act whose long delay in being ratified could have caused this, pardon the pun, wild dissemination of genes to occur in the first place. My breed has acquired curls and a funky curly tail for a reason. What could be worth markedly out crossing this well established breed in the midst of its popularity in the US? Breeders say “the conformation pendulum could swing both ways until this new something is more thoroughly absorbed.” More unbelievable yet is that this new and exciting hybrid would have to have happened in the late 1970s as my breed saw the initial crossings in the 80s though it was more widely seen 10 to 20 years after that. I need hard evidence….