Jackals are canids native to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related

black-backed jackal The black-backed jackal (''Lupulella mesomelas),'' also called the silver-backed jackal, is a medium-sized canine native to eastern and southern Africa. These regions are separated by roughly 900 kilometers. One region includes the southe ...

(''Lupulella mesomelas'') and side-striped jackal (''Lupulella adusta'') of

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

, and the golden jackal (''Canis aureus'') of south-central Europe and Asia. The African

golden wolf The African wolf (''Canis lupaster'') or golden wolf, formerly known as the African golden jackal, is a canine native to North Africa, West Africa, the Sahel, northern East Africa, and the Horn of Africa. It is listed as least concern on the IU ...

(''Canis lupaster'') was also formerly considered a jackal. While they do not form a monophyly, monophyletic clade, all jackals 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 for extended periods of time. Jackals are crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk. Their most common social unit is a Monogamy in animals, monogamous pair, which defends its territory from other pairs by vigorously chasing intruders and territorial marking, marking landmarks around the territory (animal), 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 pack (canine), packs, for example, to scavenge a carcass, but they normally hunt either alone or in pairs.

Etymology

The English word "jackal" dates back to 1600 and derives from the French ''chacal'', derived from the Persian language, Persian ', which is in turn derived from the Sanskrit शृगाल ''śṛgāla'' meaning "the howler".

Taxonomy and relationships

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 "jackal", but his theory had little immediate impact on taxonomy at the time. Angel Cabrera (naturalist), Angel Cabrera, in his 1932 monograph on the mammals of Morocco, questioned whether or not the presence of a Cingulum (tooth), cingulum on the upper Molar (tooth), molars of the jackals and its corresponding absence in the rest of ''Canis'' could justify a subdivision of that genus. In practice, Cabrera chose the undivided-genus alternative and referred to the jackals as ''Canis'' instead of ''Thos''. 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''. The wolf-like canids are a group of large carnivores that are genetically closely related. They all have 78 chromosomes. The group includes genus ''Canis'', ''Cuon'', and ''Lycaon''. The members are the dog ''(C. lupus familiaris)'', gray wolf (''C. lupus''), coyote (''C. latrans''), golden jackal (''C. aureus''), Ethiopian wolf (''C. simensis''),

(''C. mesomelas''), side-striped jackal (''C. adustus''), dhole (''Cuon alpinus''), and African wild dog (''Lycaon pictus''). The latest recognized member is the African wolf (''C. lupaster''), which was once thought to be an African branch of the golden jackal. As they possess 78 chromosomes, all members of the genus ''Canis'' are Karyology, karyologically indistinguishable from each other, and from the dhole and the African hunting dog. The two African jackals are shown to be the most basal (phylogenetics), basal members of this clade, indicating the clade's origin from Africa. ''Canis arnensis'' arrived in Mediterranean Europe 1.9 million years ago and is probably the ancestor of modern jackals. The paraphyletic nature of ''Canis'' with respect to ''Lycaon (genus), Lycaon'' and ''Cuon'' has led to suggestions that the two African jackals should be assigned to different genera, ''Schaeffia'' for the side-striped jackal and ''Lupulella'' for the black-backed jackal or ''Lupulella'' for both. The intermediate size and shape of the Ethiopian wolf has at times led it to be regarded as a jackal, thus it has also been called the "red jackal" or the "Simien jackal".

Species

Folklore and literature

Like foxes and coyotes, jackals are often depicted as clever sorcerers in the myths and legends of their regions. They are mentioned roughly 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. It is called "wild dog" in several translations of the Bible. In the King James Bible, Isaiah 13:21 refers to 'doleful creatures', which some commentators suggest are either jackals or hyenas. In the Indian ''Panchatantra'' stories, the jackal is mentioned as wily and wise. In Bengali tantrik tradition, they represent the goddess Kali. It is said she appears as jackals when meat is offered to her. The Serer religion and Serer creation myth, creation myth posits jackals were among the first animals created by Roog (Serer deity), Roog, the supreme deity of the Serer people.

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