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 former is the size of a large English fox. The young jackals are born in holes or earths; six seems to be the usual number of puppies. 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 7s. 6d. per tail is paid to the Kaffirs for killing them. The Side-striped Jackal is a Central African species, said to hunt in packs, to interbreed with domestic dogs, and to be most easily tamed.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
INDIAN JACKAL.
This Indian Jackal might be sitting for his portrait in Mr. Rudyard Kipling's tale of the "undertakers"—the jackal, alligator, and adjutant.
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 difficulties. 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 Indian plains as gaily as they would a fox over the Hampshire Downs. The meet is very early in the morning, as the scent then lies, and riding is not too great an exertion. The ground drawn is not the familiar English covert, but fields, watercourses, and old buildings. A strong dog-jackal goes away at a great pace, and as the ground is open the animal is often in view for the greater part of the run; but it keeps well ahead of the hounds often for three or four miles, and if it does not escape into a hole or ruin is usually pulled down by them. Major-General R. S. S. Baden-Powell has written and illustrated an amusing account of his days with the fox-hounds of South Africa hunting jackals. The local Boer farmers, rough, unkempt, and in ragged trousers, used to turn up smoking their pipes to enjoy the sport with the smartly got-up English officers. When once the game was found, they were just as excited as the Englishmen, and on their Boer ponies rode just as hard, and with perhaps more judgment.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.