Hayley De Ronde pointed out an interesting online article: Will you be adopting a pet jackal soon? An Israeli discovery, the first of its kind in the world: Is proximity to humans leading to jackal domestication?
In Israel, golden jackals have been living in close proximity to human populations for many years. Jackals thrive in the urban habitats and are considered an "overabundant species." Anyone walking in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park or its surrounding neighborhoods has probably already seen golden jackals disappearing into the bushes or heard their howls after dark. Wildlife and municipal authorities ask the public not to approach the jackals or feed them, but a new study conducted in the Golan Heights reveals the possibility that the existing closeness between humans and jackals is leading the jackal to become a domestic animal in the future.
A novel Israeli study, the first of its kind in the world, was recently published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports discussing the question: Does living near humans lead to the domestication of jackals?
The findings of the research, conducted at the Shamir Institute for Research in Katzrin by PhD student Ayelet Barash from the School of Zoology at Tel Aviv University, under the guidance of Dr. Yaron Dekel, Scientific Director at the Shamir Institute for Research and the University of Haifa, and Professor Tamar Dayan, Chair of the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and Tel Aviv University, indicate that living around the environment of humans could possibly be leading to the first stages of domestication in jackals, as probably happened in the domestication of dogs from wolves.
As part of the study, titled, "Possible origins and implications of atypical morphologies and domestication-like traits in wild golden jackals (Canis aureus)," a jackal displaying traits of a domesticated animal was initially suspected to be a hybrid of a jackal and a dog. However, comprehensive genetic and morphological analyses confirmed that it was actually a wild specimen. This is the first report of its kind in the literature – an animal that partially looks domesticated, but is not the result of hybridization, at least not in recent generations.
One of the first signs of domestication is a change in fur color. During a camera survey recently conducted in the Golan Heights by Shlomo Preiss-Bloom, also a PhD student at the School of Zoology at Tel Aviv University, five unusual jackals were discovered with exceptionally long fur or with white patches and an upright tail. Dr. Yossy Machluf from the Ministry of Education, Dr. Alon Barash from Bar Ilan University, and an Italian research group led by Dr. Romolo Caniglia from the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection ISPRA also participated in the study.
From one of the unusual-looking jackals, known in the study as "Jackie," DNA and skull samples were taken for examination. Jackie's DNA was compared to the DNA of other jackals and canid species, which revealed him to be 100% jackal, and not a hybrid with a dog. Jackie was also tested for relevant known coat color mutations and was found to carry none. A scan of the skull also revealed that it matched the skulls of other jackals.
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First thing that came to mind was whether "Jackie" died of natural causes or was "harvested" (killed) and my suspicion is that it was killed. Science must have its 'fun'.
With jackals the situation is similar to foxes. In some cases there is almost a symbiotic relationship.
We know the British Old Cur fox (extinction date circa 1860s) lived near human habitation for centuries as these places were a good source of (waste) food since it was dumped and also attracted rodents. It was also noted that during the 19th century when the British army in India went on campaign, etc., the jackals would follow for the same reason and disperse once the army had.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that there were fox feeders at the very least in the 19th century.
In India jackals are commonly found around villages, towns etc for the same reason: waste dumps. It is why many claimed that jackals have cross bred with domestic (and feral) dogs. For many years I stated that I believed that there was jackal-domestic dog cross-breeding going on and we know that cross breeding (or idiotically attempting to) of foxes-domestic dogs, jackals-domestic dog and even coyote and wolf with domestic dog was tried by the various British hunts. Certain “Fox-dog” hybrids may well have been jackal-dog crosses.
In The Red Paper Canids I included photographs of three unusually coloured “hybrids” killed in Croatia (2015) and these were hailed as the first scientifically proven golden jackal (Canis aureous) and domestic dog hybrids/crosses. Long term observation can, of course, be very boring for people who like home comforts and so shooting animals “for science” is always less exertion (not that I am suggesting those involved in this study did so (they would not respond to emails).
Basically, yes, jackals and domestic dogs do cross-breed like other wild canid species and domestic dogs. We also know that some jackals were transported into areas deplete of jackals for hunting -something that went on in the UK and Ireland for a long period.
But are jackals becoming domesticated in the sense that they will live around humans? We have seen in the UK that feeders treat foxes like “garden pets” and feed them as they would a house pet so, yes, people have "adopted" New foxes. In many areas where there are jackals such as (mainly) India they are treated as almost wild pets. Waste food is one attraction and the there is a strong symbiotic relationship between humans and jackals and it would be nice to see naturalists actually study that rather than kill jackals “for science”.
So people have already adopted (or rather habituated) jackals (and foxes) a long time ago.
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