The Living Animals of the World, Volume I: Mammals
In Central Asia the Pkoto ly Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green.
RUSSIAN WOLF.
wolves lie out singly on Note the expression of fear and ferocity on the face of this wolf; also the enormously powerful jaws. the steppes during the summer, and feed on the young antelopes and the lambs and kids of the Tartars' flocks. The Kirghiz organise wolf-killing parties, to which as many mounted men and dogs come as can be brought together. In order to aid the dogs, the Tartars often employ eagles trained to act like falcons, which sit on the arm of the owner. As the eagle is too heavy to be carried for any time in this way, a crutch is fastened to the left side of the saddle, on which the bearer of the falcon rests his arm. When a wolf is sighted, the eagle is loosed, and at once flies after the wolf, and overtakes it in a short time, striking at its. head and eyes with its talons, and buffeting it with its wings. it.This attack so disconcerts the wolf that it gives time for the dogs to come up and seize
The habits of the Siberian wolf are rather different from those in West Russia, and the settlers and nomad Tartars of Siberia are far more adventurous and energetic in defending themselves against its ravages than the peasants of European Russia. Being mounted, they is that Siberian wolves seldom appearalso have a great advantage in the pursuit. The result in large packs, and very rarely venture to attack man. Yet the damage they do to the flocks and herds which constitute almost the only property of the nomad tribes is very severe.
Both the Russians and Siberians believe that when a she-wolf is suckling her young she carefully avoids attacking flocks in the neighbourhood of the place where the cubs lie, but that if she be robbed of her whelps she revenges herself by attacking the nearest flock. On this account the Siberian peasants rarely destroy a litter, but hamstring the young wolves, and then catch them when partly grown, and kill them for the sake of their fur. Among the ingenious methods used for shooting wolves in Siberia is that of killing them from sledges. is harnessed to a sledge, and the driver takes his seat in front as usual.A steady horse is induced toBehind sit two men armed with guns, and provided with a small pig, which squeak often and loudly. In the rear of the sledge a bag of hay is trailed on a long rope. Any wolf in the forest near which hears the pig concludes that it is a young wild one separated from its mother. Seeing the hay-bag trailing behind the sledge in the dusk, it leaps out to seize it, and is shot by the passengers sitting on the back seat of the sledge.
92 The Living Animals of the World
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.
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
Photo by L. Medland, F.Z.S.] [North Finchley.
NORTH AFRICAN JACKAL.
This is the common jackal of Cairo and Lower Egypt.
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.
The Dog Family 93
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 Photo ly A. S. liudland & Sons. their Boer ponies rode just as hard, and MANED WOLF. with perhaps more judgment. A South American animal; its coat is a chestnut-red. Jackals are said to be much increasing in South Africa since the outbreak of the war. The fighting has so far arrested farming operations that the war usually maintained on all beasts which destroy cattle or sheep has been allowed to drop. In parts of the more hilly districts both the jackal and the leopard are reappearing where they have not been common for years, and it will take some time before these enemies of the farmer are destroyed.
THE MANED WOLF.
This is by far the largest of several peculiar South American species of the Dog Family which we have not room to mention. It occurs in Paraguay and adjoining regions, and is easily distinguishable by its long Photo by L. Midland, F.Z.S.] [North Finchley. limbs and large ears. It is chestnut-red in TURKISH JACKAL. with the lower part of the legs This jackal is common in both Turkey in Europe and in Asia. Near colour, Constantinople it feeds largely on the bodies buried in the cemeteries black, and is solitary in its habits. at Scutari.
‘Tue WiLp Doc or AFrica, oR Care HuNTING-DoG. This is a most interesting creature, differing from the true dogs in having only four toes on both fore and hind feet, and in being spotted like a hyena. These dogs are the scourge of African game, hunting in packs. Long of limb and: swift of foot, incessantly restless, with an overpowering desire to snap and bite from mere animal Photo by A. 8, Rudland & Sons,: ‘ spirits, the Cape wild dog, WILD DOG.: he ‘These animals range from the plains of India and Burma to the Tibetan Plateau and Siberia. even when re captivity and They hunt in small packs, usually by day, and are very destructive togame, but: seldom~attack attached to its master, is domestic animals, an» intractable beast. In its native state it kills the farmers’. cattle and sheep and the largest antelopes. A pack has been seen to kill and devour to the last morsel a large buck in fifteen minutes. Drummond says: “It is a marvellous sight to see a pack of them, hunting, drawing cover after cover, their sharp bell-like note ringing through the air, while a few of the fastest of their number take up their places along the expected: line of the run, the wind, the nature of the ground, and the habits of the game being all taken. into consideration with wonderful skill.” The same writer says that he has seen them dash into a herd of-cattle feeding not a hundred yards from the house, drive out a beast, disappear over a rising ground, kill it, and pick its bones before a horse could be saldled and ridden to the ‘place. Tue Inpian Witp Does. Mr. Rudyard Kipling’s stories of the “ Dhole,” the red dogs of the Indian jungle, have made the world familiar with these ferocious and wonderfully bold wild dogs. There is very little doubt that they were found in historic times in Asia Minor. Possibly the surviving stories of the “Gabriel hounds” and other ghostly packs driving deer alone in the German and Russian forests, tales which remain even in remote parts of ; England, are ‘a survival of the ase! [Patuon's Gren “days when the wild dogs lived The wild dog of Australia, Tt was found there by the first discoverers, but was probably 12 Europe. At present there introduced from elsewhere is one species of long-haired ental Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.)
Photo by Kerry & Co.] DINGOES, The destruction done to the flocks of the settlers by the dingoes caused the latter to combine and almost to destroy these wild dogs,