NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



If captured in the very young puppy condition, 

 these jackals may be rendered as tame as any do- 

 mestic dog. A friend reared one, and had it for 

 many years. When released from its chain it 

 showed its delight in true canine fashion, racing, 

 gambolling, and jumping up against its master with 

 its forepaws ; or throwing itself on its back on the 

 ground. It followed its owner about like an affec- 

 tionate dog, but it was necessary for it to be secured 

 on a chain most of the time, owing to a habit it 

 could not overcome of poaching poultry from folk 

 in the neighbourhood. 



One day we were out in the veld with this jackal 

 a couple of miles from home, and for a change it 

 was taken off the chain. From out of some bushes 

 adjacent, a youth emerged with a pair of Fox Terrier 

 dogs. These little fellows made a dash at the jackal, 

 which instantly turned tail and fled in the wildest 

 terror, galloping along at its utmost speed, to vanish 

 anon in the midst of some thick thorny scrub a 

 mile distant. Returning home, we saw no sign 

 of the jackal, and concluded we had seen the last 

 of it ; but the following morning it was dis- 

 covered lying quietly sleeping in its kennel in 

 the yard. 



The jackal finds it safer to hide away in the dense 

 tangled undergrowth, than to trust itself to a burrow, 

 unless when hard pressed by dogs, when it gener- 

 ally takes refuge underground, usually in the hole 

 of an Aard Vark ; but if there should be any dense 



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