JACKAL

Jackal:

A jackal is a member of any of three small to medium-sized species of the genus Canis, found in Africa, Asia, and southeastern Europe. Jackals fill a similar ecological niche to the coyote (sometimes called the American jackal[1]) in North America; both are omnivorous predators of small to medium-sized animals, as well as scavengers. Their long legs and curved canine teeth are adapted for hunting small mammals, birds and reptiles. Big feet and fused leg bones give them a long-distance runner's physique, capable of maintaining speeds of 16 km/h (9.9 mph) for extended periods of time. They are crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk.
In jackal society the social unit is that of a monogamous pair which defends its territory from other pairs. These territories are defended by vigorously chasing intruding rivals and marking landmarks around the territory with urine and feces. The territory may be large enough to hold some young adults who stay with their parents until they establish their own territory. Jackals may occasionally assemble in small packs, for example to scavenge a carcass, but normally hunt alone or as a pair.

ETYMOLOGY

The English word "jackal" derives from Turkish çakal, via Persian shaghal, ultimately from Sanskrit sṛgālaḥ.[2][3]


Taxonomy and relationships

In 1816, in the third volume of Lorenz Oken’s Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte, the author found sufficient similarities in the dentition of jackals and the North American coyotes to place these species into a new separate genus Thos after the classical Greek word θώς=[clarification needed]. Oken’s idiosyncratic nomenclatorial ways however, aroused the scorn of a number of zoological systematists. Nearly all the descriptive words used to justify the genus division were relative terms without a reference measure and that the argument did not take into account the size differences between the species which can be considerable. Angel Cabrera, in his 1932 monograph on the mammals of Morocco, briefly touched upon the question whether or not the presence of a cingulum on the upper molars of the jackals and its corresponding absence in the rest of Canis could justify a subdivision of the genus Canis. In practice, he chose the undivided-genus alternative and referred to the jackals as Canis.[4]
Oken’s Thos theory had little immediate impact on taxonomy and/or taxonomic nomenclature, though it was revived in 1914 by Edmund Heller who embraced the new genus theory. Heller’s name and the designations he gave to various jackal species and subspecies live on, though the genus has been changed from Thos to Canis.[4]
Modern research has clarified the relationships between the "jackal" species. Despite their outward similarity, they are not all closely related to one another. The Side-striped Jackal and Black-backed Jackal are close to each other, but separated from the other African and Eurasian wild dogs and wolves by some six or seven mya. The Golden Jackal and Ethiopian Wolf are part of a group also including the Grey Wolf, domestic dog and Coyote[5]. Breeding experiments in Germany with poodles, jackals, and later on with the resulting hybrids showed that unlike wolfdogs, jackal-dog hybrids show a decrease in fertility, significant communication problems as well as an increase of genetic disorders after three generations of interbreeding, much like coydogs.

Use in slang

The popular, although rather inaccurate image of jackals is as scavengers, and this has resulted in a somewhat negative image.[citation needed]
The expression "jackalling" is sometimes used to describe the work done by a subordinate in order to save the time of a superior.[citation needed] (For example, a junior lawyer may peruse large quantities of material on behalf of a barrister).[citation needed] This came from the tradition that the jackal will sometimes lead a lion to its prey.[citation needed] In other languages, the same word is sometimes used to describe the behavior of persons who try to scavenge scraps from the misfortunes of others; for example, by looting a village from which its inhabitants have fled because of a disaster.[citation needed]
In Nonviolent Communication, "jackal language" refers to communication that labels, judges, and criticizes.