Egyptian Wolf (Wolf Jackal) (Egyptian Golden Jackal)

Canis anthus lupaster

 (Source of the Info -> Mythos Wolf)

The Egyptian wolf, also known as the jackal wolf or Abu el Hosseïn (Canis lupus lupaster), is a subspecies of the wolf found in northern Egypt and northeastern Libya. Unfortunately, the Egyptian wolf is endangered or even extinct. However, it does not appear in the IUCN's red list. This subspecies of the wolf is said to have been widespread in Egypt but also on the Arabian Peninsula. The Egyptian wolf used to be confused with the jackal, hence its name jackal wolf.

The fur color of the Egyptian wolf is usually silver to gray and brown. The fur is mottled. The physique is very small compared to its kind. This is certainly also due to the high temperature in his homeland.

Unfortunately, there isn't much to be found on the Internet about the Egyptian wolf. A small extract from Brehm's animal life has to suffice here. Please note that this book is from the 1880s. The information should therefore be treated with caution:

Northeast Africa is home to the jackal wolf or "Abu el Hosseïn" of the Arabs (Canis [Lupus] lupaster, Canis Anthus, variegatus?). It is significantly smaller than our Isegrim, but similar in shape and proportions. The broad, pointed head has large, broad and high ears, pointed at the top; the body is strong, but relatively high; the bushy tail reaches down over the heel, is usually hanging, but sometimes carried upwards in a large curve; The fur, which is not particularly dense and even, has a dark pale brown color, the individual hair yellowish roots and black tips.

According to Hartmann, the jackal wolf also changes not insignificantly, is more powerfully built and more hairy in higher, cooler areas than in hot lowlands, where it also appears darker in color, sometimes shows blackish spots and stripes on its fur, etc.

Ehrenberg found the jackal wolf, which the ancient Egyptians knew very well and depicted on their temple buildings, in northeast Africa; later travelers observed him throughout the north, north-east and north-west of Africa. Even in the deserts of the lower Nile Valley, it is not uncommon, although you only ever come across individual ones. "Wherever the overgrown Nilthal, which has been built up," says Hartmann, "only narrow strips, the jackal wolf hides during the day in hard-to-reach gaps in the desert land that borders the river, but grazes in the evening and at night, rarely against it walking around in bright sunshine, quenching his thirst by the water and robbing the settlements wherever possible. "In the southern countries of the Nile region, as I have already communicated in my" Results of a trip to Habesch, "denser bushes or even the grass forest the steppe its abode. In the steppe he should dig caves or use the large-tube, deep burrows of the aardvark for daytime hiding places: at least that's what the inhabitants of Kordofan told me.

Occurrence: Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia

In essence, our wild dog is more reminiscent of the wolf than the jackal. If Giebel puts it together with the latter, i.e. only as a variant of the jackal, all he proves is that he has never seen it. Everyone will have to recognize a wolf in him; from the jackal it differs even to the untrained eye. His appearance is also wolf-like. As a rule he stays in a fairly narrowly defined area and hunts all kinds of small game, dwarf antelopes, hares, mice, wild and domestic chickens and the like, while also picking up and consuming all kinds of fruit; but sometimes, especially during the rainy season, he forms packs, goes on long hikes, attacks flocks of sheep and goats, tears down more than he consumes, breaks up the flocks and frightens the shepherds in a terrible way. Such a gang rushes over a carcass with the greed of a pack of wolves, and when the barking stomach compels it, according to Hartmann, also attacks all sorts of inedible substances.

In the steppes of Inner Africa, the jackal wolf is hunted with the excellent greyhounds there, which tear down their relatives despite lively resistance or hold them until the hunters come over and stab them with lances. It is not kept in captivity any more than other wild dogs.

I saw the first jackal wolves caught in the imperial menagerie at Schönbrunn; later I received a pair that I looked after and observed for a long time. Their behavior is that of the wolf. Like the latter at first shy, anxious and irritable, they get used to the carer in not too long a time, come over to the call and finally indulge in caresses. They faithfully join in the howling of related wild dogs; otherwise one seldom hears a sound from them. The couple I kept mated on March 10th, and on May 12th, after a gestation period of exactly sixty-three days, the female wolves. The young were treated with the greatest tenderness, thrived excellently, were already playing like young dogs at the end of June, grew extremely quickly and justified the best of hopes, but perished from distemper

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