I found myself wondering if in other cultures and other countries, are other species of wild dogs were as hated or feared as the poor wolf and coyote are sometimes here.

Are they too "the undesirables" of other lands and places?

 

And just exactly "what" breeds of wild dogs are most of us unaware of?

Jackals are a little smaller than coyotes and look much like them. While they hunt small animals themselves and eat a variety of fruits, insects, mice, and ground-dwelling birds -- they depend for much of their food on the leaves of the great hunters of the wild -- the lion and tiger, or even the sportsman, that most wasteful of all hunters.

There are several species of jackals in Africa, one of which, the Yellow or Golden jackal is found from Morocco, through southern Asia to India, and is the best known kind. It is of a dirty yellowish color, quite unattractive-looking.

The Side-striped jackal of eastern and southern Africa is named because of a black stripe on each side. It is hardly more handsome than it's yellowed cousin. Very different is the African black backed jackal species, which is a foxy red, except for a black mantle from its neck to its tail.

The Abyssinian "wolf" is a large red jackal of the Ethiopian Plateau, and is one of the most interesting members of the wild dog family. While it is classed with the jackals, it resembles the wolf and fox.

It has a restricted range. Long-legged and slender-bodied, it behaves very much like a fox, preying on the field rats that are common in the upland meadows and on other small animals.

Jackals are usually found in pairs, although when there is a special attraction, a number may come together. Like the coyote, they are not very courageous, but they sometimes rush in and seize a piece of meat while the animal that did the killing is still gorging.

When the victim is large, there is usually a good part left over. When the master of the feast retires, they hyenas, jackals, and vultures move in to clean up the remains. A few splinters of bone are all that is left when these scavengers slink away from the meal.

The Yellow or Golden jackals act as the sanitation department of many Eastern towns, eating up the garbage and refuse. In this, they are helped by the cur dogs that so much resemble them. Dead natives, buried in shallow graves, in third world countries, are frequently dug up and eaten by these "bellies that run on four feet" as the Eastern saying goes.

There is very little doubt that our domestic dogs are the descendants of the wolf and the yellow jackal. Some breeds, like the Eskimo dogs, are mostly wolf, while the dogs of southeastern Asia are very much like the jackal.

The Dingo, on the other hand, is a domestic dog that has gone wild. Even in the United States and other countries, dogs go wild now and then and live for years, killing deer and small mammals. The Dingo is very much like the dogs whose remains have been found in the rubbish left by early men in Europe.

It's thought that Dingos were probably brought to Australia four thousands years ago and there is considerable disagreement as to their origins.

No doubt a number of animals either ran away from their masters from wherever they were or were left there by their owners to take care of themselves when explorers or families perished or left for other parts -- and thus if they survived became wild.

Here in the United States, this happened to dogs that were left behind by Spanish and other explorers of a much later period in history -- especially in Louisiana and parts of Florida -- as in the Catahoula Leopard dogs seen today.

Now the Australian natives catch young Dingos and tame them. The dogs spread over all of the continent, finding hunting good. They were able to catch and kill all except the largest kangaroos. Hunting in a pack, they could take these too.

The native mammals of prey were not so sly or swift or powerful as the Dingo, and so they offered little competition. When Europeans began to raise sheep in Australia, the Dingos were very destructive. They were soon pretty well killed off in the more settled areas in very quick fashion.

The African hunting dog is a strange looking wild animal. Its ears are large and its coloration is a patchwork of black, yellow, and white and no two of these dogs are alike. Its body is lean, its legs long, and its head massive. Some people think it looks like a Hyena and call it "Hyena dog."

Packs of a dozen or less are common, and some packs contain sixty or more wild dogs. Throughout most of the bush country of Africa, south of the Sahara, these hunters roam, traveling over great distances, appearing suddenly in a region and then leaving it just as suddenly.

All the game leaves a region when the African hunting dogs come through and they don't want to return for some time. The dogs follow their prey like well-trained hounds.

They depend chiefly on the smaller and medium sized antelopes and run them down, though the antelopes are the fleetest of the plant eaters.

The natives fear these large dogs (they are about the size of a wolf), but there is no reliable accounts of the dogs ever attaching a man.

Today, they are threatened with extinction.

The Dhole or Red Hunting dog of India and China, is a close relative of the African Hunting dog. It is smaller, about the size of a coyote.

The Dholes, in spite of their small size are fearless hunters, even known for being capable of driving tigers from their kills and sometimes attacking the Gaur, a large wild ox, when their pack is big. They will occasionally kill a bear or a leopard.

They do it by surrounding the victim, those in front holding the attention while others rush in and tear the flanks and the thighs.

The prey is partly eaten while it is still alive. For all their ferocity, the Red Hunting dogs are not known to attack man and in some places natives drive them away from their kill.

Today, this wild dog is threatened with extinction and little known outside of the wooded and remote areas where it lives.

The little Bush dog of tropical America, is usually thought to be another relative of the hunting dog. It is less dog-like in appearance, with short legs and tail, and a very large head.

In habits it is shy and cunning. The natives of the forest sometimes take cubs from the dens in order to raise them. Although they stand in considerable fear of the vicious old dogs, the natives find that cubs raised in captivity become quite tame, and can be used in hunting.

Today, it is a near threatened species of wild dog and less than fifteen thousand exist in South America.

The Raccoon dog lives in China and Japan and looks more like a raccoon, with its sharp nose, black mask, and bulky body, than a dog. It is a true dog, however, and no relation to the "coon."

Raccoon dogs live near streams and depend on fish and fruit, besides catching mice and rats. The fur of these small wild dogs is valuable and because of this fact, there is danger that the species may be exterminated.

Valued for fur, meat, and for uses in traditional medicines, especially in Japan, in some areas they have been hunted to near extinction. In other areas they are considered a pest and nuisance.