Page 26 - Dog

Jackals and coyotes A FIERCE FACE
The Toltecs of Mexico
worshiped a serpent
god, Quetzalcoatl,
shown here wearing
a coyote headdress.
Jackals, and the coyote, which lives only It was found at a
ruined palace in
in North America, come below the wolf in Tula, Mexico,
the scale of social hunters (pp. 18–19) – the and was made
of shell and
wolf being the most social of all animals that wood, between
the seventh
hunt on land. There are four species of and ninth
jackals, all of which are found in Africa. The centuries a.d.
most widespread is the golden jackal, which
is found in southeastern Europe and
Limestone stele of Egyptian southern Asia as well as in Africa. Both the
kneeling before the jackal of side-striped jackal and the black-backed
Wepwawet, with 63 other
jackals, made after 550 b.c. jackal are found in Africa, south of the
Sahara. The fourth jackal, the Simien jackal, lives only on the
high plains of the Simen Mountains in Ethiopia, in the eastern
part of Africa, and it is now in danger of extinction (pp. 12–13).
All species of jackals, and the coyote, live in close-knit family
groups which forage for any food they can find. Meals may
vary from the carcass of an animal long since dead and left
unwanted by other carnivores, to an antelope that the canids
themselves have managed to kill. When a litter of pups is
born (pp. 20–21), all the jackals in the family
will help to look after them and bring back food
for them to the den.

GOLDEN OLDIES
This pair of golden jackals will stay together for
their whole lives, hunting and breeding
together, unless one of them is killed.
They will patrol their territory
together, scent mark it with
their urine, and prevent
any intruding jackals
from coming near.

SILVER SADDLE
The black-backed jackal has a
spectacular coat of fine fur with a
silver and black saddle. It lives on
open grasslands in eastern
and southern Africa.

This mummified canid
in the form of the
jackal god, Anubis, is
from ancient Egypt
(pp. 14-15), between
600 b.c. and a.d. 300

24
(c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved.