Jackal facts

• The jackal is a wild dog inhabiting parts of Asia and Africa. 
• It is a tawny, ill-scented, noisy, thievish, fox-like animal, having a long, sharp nose and a bushy tail. 
• The jackal hides in the daytime and prowls about in packs at night, with a proclivity for seizing unguarded kids and poultry. But in the vicinity of villages, at least, it depends chiefly on the leavings of vultures and hyenas. When the hyenas are feasting on the dead carcass of a goat, a camel, or a horse, the jackals sit around in a ring at a respectful distance, waiting to gnaw the bones.
• In a state of complete wildness, the jackal pack runs down small game or follows the nobler animals of prey, particularly the lion, in hopes of getting a bone, at least, from the king's table. 
• From a mistakes notion that the jackals hunt up game and drive it toward the lion, they have been called the lion's providers. 
• The jackal is comparable to the coyote of the plains. In the ostrich-raising districts of Africa the jackal is to the ostrich farmer what the coyote is to the sheep raiser of Montana. The jackal is a proverbially cunning animal. In Oriental tales it takes the place of the fox.