BT Wild ART - A unique Journey to the wilderness: The Jacks

Dear readers hope you are doing good, slowly we are moving towards the unlocking phase and hence we should be more careful if we go out, GURU Mantra is Mask, Sanitizer, and Vaccine. Many people are in hope of a magical vaccine and hence not opting for what is currently available, simple advice to such smart people is that please don't put life at risk and complete the vaccination at the earliest.

After COVID Gyan let us focus on today's topic. It is always a tough call to finalize the topic and it becomes more challenging due to the current situation. So the next question is how to find a topic? The answer is to look into your past, I know many people say you should not look into the past, but let me tell you when you have wonderful memories then you should refer to the past. I referred to memories and found today's topic in form of Jackal.

Similar to Cheeta and Leopard, people get confused between Dhole and Jackal so I decided to clarify the same in today's topic. To start with let me tell you the interesting story of Jackal and later on will help you to understand more about Jackal and then you can enjoy the DSLR section.

A day with Jackal

Pench trip which was planned with colleagues more for tiger sighting which came very early in 1st safari itself and hence all other lost interest in next early morning safari. Poor Akhil who missed the tiger in the first safari had the last chance to try. We did 4 rounds and saw Jackals in most of them but the experience of the 4th safari was completely different.

So the last safari me and Akhil started with the hope to find a tiger or leopard, we were trying hard and missed a leopard for a fraction of time. Now we entered into the last hour of the safari, Do or die situation, nothing coming our way, not a single click for the last 40 minutes, and suddenly we found this scavenger doing some activity.

Most of the time people ignore small species and run behind tigers but we decided to spend some time with Jackal because the activity was not normal, we went little closure to check what is going on. Initially, we thought Jackal is searching for something in the grass but when it turned back we realize that it was feasting on a baby monkey. This was absolutely unique in nature, it is very difficult to experience such a rare moment. Akhil missed the Tiger but was rewarded with one of the rare sightings. This is why I said Jackal was the STAR, now let us move to the next section to know the facts of this lovely creature.

Fantastic facts

Jackals are medium-sized omnivorous mammals of the genus Canis, which also includes wolves, coyotes, and the domestic dog. Jackals are a type of canine, animals that are related to dogs, coyotes, foxes, and wolves. They look like a cross between a German shepherd and a fox

Jackals are opportunistic omnivores and scavenge a lot, but also hunt rodents and other small animals and birds

While the word "Jackal" has historically been used for many small canids, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backed jackal and side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of south-central Eurasia, which is more closely related to other members of the genus Canis

Jackal with long legs and curved canine teeth are adapted for hunting, they are capable of maintaining speeds of 16 km/h (9.9 mph) for long-running

Jackals mate for the lifetime (they are monogamous) and litters may consist of up to 9 cubs

Their most common social unit is a monogamous pair, which defends its territory from other pairs by vigorously chasing intruding rivals and marking landmarks around the territory with their urine and feces

Black-backed jackal - The most lightly built jackal, it is considered to be the oldest living member of the genus Canis

Side-striped jackal - It primarily resides in wooded areas, unlike other jackal species. It is the least aggressive of the jackals, rarely preying on large mammals

Golden jackal- The most widespread of the jackals, it is more closely related to wolves than to African jackal species

Coyote - The largest and heaviest jackal, also known as the "American jackal. It, like the black-backed jackal, is considered the most aggressive of the jackals.

Confused between Dhole (Wild Dog, and Jackal?

Let see both together