Black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas) and side-striped jackals (Canis audustus) are a much older species of canines (fossil records dating back to the Ice Age). Both species are smaller than coyotes, and are exclusively African animals. Side-striped are also much more timid than coyotes or bbjs, and eat more insects than any other canid species. Functionally, they’re not much different from one another. Both are opportunistic scavengers with occasional hunting of smaller prey species, live in mater pairs/small family groups…screaming…
BONUS: colloquialisms have taken the name of jackal and adopted it to three separate canid species that are significantly different than the true jackals: the American jackal (coyote), the Simien jackal (Ethopian wolf), and the golden jackal. It leaves a lot of confusion and a lack of meaning behind the term, which is why the scientific community is proposing the generic name for black-backs and side-stripes to be changed from Canis to Lupullela.
This “trickster” is highly-adaptable, one of a handful of existing carnivores that evolved on the North American continent. It’s noted for its vocalizations and has earned a special place in Native American folklore – where it’s depicted as a cunning agent of humor and chaos. Today, some facts about the coyote (Canis latrans):
Coyotes will hunt alone or in groups. They are predators, scavengers, and omnivores and will even, sometimes, form unlikely predatory partnerships with other animals.
As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services documents in the above picture, a coyote and badger have teamed up on a prairie in Colorado. The duo can hunt prairie dogs and ground squirrels a lot better when they work in tandem – as the fleet-footed coyote runs down prey and the badger digs hiding animals out of burrows.
At least 11 different kinds of coyote vocalizations have been documented. According to the USFWS, “When you hear coyotes howl, you may think that you are hearing many animals. Two can sound like six because of their complex, interruptive, variable vocalizations. Sometimes their hauntingly beautiful songs echo off nearby rock walls, exacerbating the illusion of many animals.”
Coyotes form strong pair bonds, with both parents providing food to their young. Other coyotes will also assist in the rearing of young pups, which are born in litters of three to seven between March and May.
A staple of legend in many indigenous North American cultures, the coyote is often a trickster hero – variably credited with bringing mankind fire and telling the first lie.
From ‘The Coyote Gospel’, in Animal Man #5, by Grant Morrison. Chas Truog, and Doug Hazlewood.
I’ve always liked this, not least because part of me thinks Wile E Coyoye is the second half of the twentieth century’s greatest artistic interpretation of the human condition.
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