Black-backed jackal
| Black-backed jackal Temporal range: Pliocene - Recent |
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| Cape jackal (C. m. mesomelas) feeding on a springbok carcass, Etosha National Park, Namibia. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus: | Canis |
| Species: | C. mesomelas |
| Binomial name | |
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Canis mesomelas Schreber, 1775 |
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| Subspecies | |
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2 ssp., see text |
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| Black-backed jackal range, with C. m. mesomelas in blue and C. m. schmidti in red | |
2 ssp., see text
The black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) is a canid native to two areas of Africa, separated by roughly 900 km.
One region includes the southernmost tip of the continent, including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. The other area is along the eastern coastline, including Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is listed by the IUCN as least concern, due to its widespread range and adaptability, although it is still persecuted as a livestock predator and rabies vector.
Compared to other members of the genus Canis, the black-backed jackal is a very ancient species, and has changed little since the , being the most basal canine alongside the closely related side-striped jackal. It is a fox-like canid with a reddish coat and a black saddle that extends from the shoulders to the base of the tail. It is a monogamous animal, whose young may remain with the family to help raise new generations of pups. The black-backed jackal is not a fussy eater, and will feed on small to medium-sized animals, as well as plant matter and human refuse.
In English, the species is known by several different names, including saddle-backed, grey, silver-backed, red, and golden jackal (not to be confused with Canis aureus). The Latin mesomelas is a compound consisting of meso (middle) and melas (black).
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