jackal

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Black-backed jackal

Jackal is the name of several species of wild dog with a wolf-like shape that are significantly smaller than wolves . They occupy similar ecological niches and are thus in competition with one another in areas in which their areas of distribution overlap. Jackals live as opportunistic carnivores on small and medium-sized prey and on carrion . They are persistent runners with long legs and hunt alone or in small groups at dusk and at night.

etymology

The word jackal ( English : jackal ) derives from the 17th century via Persian شغال ( šaġāl ) and later Turkish çakal, probably originally from the ancient Indian śṛgāláḥ .

species

Jackals in the strict sense

Distribution areas of the three jackal species

Usually three Afro-Asian species of the genus Canis are called jackals:

More "jackals"

The African golden wolf ( Canis anthus ) was previously thought of as a golden jackal living in Africa.

In addition to these species, the Ethiopian wolf ( Canis simensis ) is sometimes referred to as the "Ethiopian jackal" or "Abyssinian jackal".

The North American coyote ( Canis latrans ) fills a similar ecological niche as the jackals and has many parallels in its way of life. In the English-speaking world, it is therefore sometimes referred to as the American jackal ("American jackal").

There is also an Andean jackal ( Lycalopex culpaeus ), which belongs to the South American wild dogs of the genus Lycalopex and is not closely related to the species mentioned above.

Molecular Genetic Studies

Recent molecular genetic studies have shown that the black-backed jackal and the striped jackal are closely related, but (in contrast to the golden jackal) are only largely related to other species of the genus such as the gray wolf ; especially more extensive than the African wild dog and the red dog (which were traditionally listed as independent genera Lycaon and Cuon ). A solution to the problem is still being discussed:

  • One could, as cautious systematists have been doing for a long time, place the striped and black-backed jackals in their own common genus, Thos , following the designation " Thos Oken , 1816" ; or following Zrzavý and Řičánková 2004, set up their own monotypical genera for each of them (with the species Schaeffia adusta and Lupulella mesomelas ).
  • According to a family tree proposed by Wang and Tedford in 2008/2009, the previous genera Lycaon and Cuon could be placed in the genus Canis as sub-genera , something similar has also been proposed for the fossil Xenocyon and the position of Canis ferox, which is also extinct (see graphic), would not have to be revised become. Striped and black-backed jackal could possibly remain in the genus Canis . The genus of the striped and black-backed jackals would not necessarily have to be changed, both could, for example, be listed as a subgenus ( e.g. Thos ).

Cultural history

The Egyptian god Anubis was depicted with a jackal's head.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Pfeifer : "Schakal" in the Etymological Dictionary of German. Digital dictionary of the German language , accessed on November 9, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Kerstin Lindblad-Toh et al .: "Resolving canid phylogeny." Section in: Kerstin Lindblad-Toh et al .: Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog. Nature 438, December 2005; Page 803–819.
  3. ↑ Eberhard Trumler : My wild friends. The wild dog species in the world. Munich, Piper Verlag, 1981. ISBN 3-492-02483-1 . P. 68 f. - For an overview of the Thos / Canis debate see: Holger Homann: Thos vs. Canis. 2004 (English). ( Memento from November 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Originally in: holgerhomann.us .
  4. ↑ Jan Zrzavý, Věra Řičánková: Phylogeny of Recent Canidae (Mammalia, Carnivora): Relative Reliability and Utility of Morphological and Molecular Datasets , in: Zoologica Scripta Volume 33, No. 4, July 2004, pp. 311–333, doi : 10.1111 /j.0300-3256.2004.00152.x .
  5. ^ The position of Canis ferox would then have to be checked.
  6. ↑ Xiaoming Wang, Richard H. Tedford, "Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History." Columbia University Press, New York 2008. Book , PDF
  7. ↑ Richard H. Tedford, Xiaoming Wang, Beryl E. Taylor: Phylogenetic Systematics of the North American Fossil Caninae (Carnivora: Canidae) , in: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History , AMNH , New York 2009, Vol. 325, p 1-218, PDF , doi : 10.1206 / 574.1
  8. ↑ Lorenzo Rook: The Plio-Pleistocene Old World Canis (Xenocyon) ex gr. Falconeri , in: Bolletino della Società Paleontologica Italiana 33, 1994 (via Research Gate online since December 28, 2015), pp. 71-82.

Web links

Wiktionary: Jackal  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations