90 
THE LIVING ANIMALS 
OF THE WORLD 
Photo by L, Medland, F.Z.S] [ North Finchley 
NORTH AFRICAN JACKAL 
This is the common jackal of Cairo and Lower Egypt 
THE JACKAL 
Of the Wild Canine Family, the JackaL 
is the next in numbers and importance to the 
wolves. Probably in: the East it is the most 
numerous of any. In India, Egypt, and Syria 
it regularly haunts the outskirts of cities, and 
lives on refuse. In the Indian plains wounded 
animals are also killed by the jackals. At night 
the creatures assemble in packs, and scour the 
outskirts of the cities. Horrible are the 
howlings and weird the cries of these hungry 
packs. In Ceylon they live in the hills and 
open country like foxes, and kill the hares, 
When taken young jackals can be tamed, and 
have all the manners of a dog. They wag 
their tails, fawn on their master, roll over and 
stick up their paws, and could probably be 
domesticated in a few generations, were it 
worth while. They eat fruits and vegetables, 
such as melons and pumpkins, eagerly. 
In Africa two species are found—the BLAcK-BACKED JACKAL and the STRIPED JACKAL; the 
rormer is the size of a large English fox. 
seems to be the usual number of puppies. 
The young jackals are born in holes or earths ; six 
They have nearly always a back door by which they 
can escape; this is just large enough for the puppies to squeeze through, whatever their size. 
When fox-terriers are put into the earth, the jackal puppies fly out of their back doors, through 
which, as a rule, the terriers are unable to follow them. Should there be no one outside, the 
puppies race out on to the veldt as hard as they can go.. This jackal is terribly destructive to 
sheep and lambs in the Colony. A reward of 
$1.80 per tail is paid to the Kaffirs for killing 
them. The SrpE-STRIPED JACKAL is a Central 
African species, said to hunt in packs, to inter- 
breed with domestic dogs, and to be most 
easily tamed. 
Both in India and South Africa the jackal 
has been found to be of some service to the 
white man by providing him with a substitute 
for the fox to hunt. It has quite as remarkable 
powers of endurance as the fox, though it does 
not fight in the same determined way when 
the hounds overtake it. But it is not easy to 
estimate the courage of a fox when in diffi- 
culties. The writer has known one, when 
coursed by two large greyhounds, to disable 
both almost instantaneously. One was bitten 
across the muzzle, the other through the foot. 
The fox escaped without a bite from either. In 
India the hounds used are drafts from English 
packs. The hot weather does not suit them, 
and they are seldom long-lived ; but while they 
are in health they will run a jackal across the 
Photo by A. 8. Rudland & Sons 
INDIAN JACKAL 
This Indian jackal might be sitting for his portrait in Mr. Rudyard Kip- 
ling’s tale of the ‘* undertakers’ — the jackal, alligator, and adjutant 
