There is an idiom in China "jackal tiger leopard", of which the wolf we have seen, the tiger we have seen, the leopard we have also seen, but what is this jackal?
Jackals are actually a wolf-like-looking canine, and once they were more widespread in Asia than wolves, so frightening that they ranked first in the idiom.
The dark forces in the idiom - jackals, tigers and leopards
It is precisely because of this that the mainland has been committed to cutting the "jackal" since ancient times, and eventually the jackal disappeared from people's vision.
However, jackals have not disappeared from this world, and in some places they still live, but they have become more mysterious.
Jackals are rarely seen
The Mystical Jackal
The jackal is the only species in the genus Canineidae, which looks between a wolf and a fox, with an orange-yellow body and white hairs on the chin and abdomen.
It is smaller than a wolf, and the adult jackal is only about 1 meter long, about 50 centimeters high at the shoulder, and weighs about the same as the rhubarb at the mouth of the village.
However, the jackal has a cunning personality, preferring to inhabit the mountains and forests, and flock to it.
Generally speaking, the number of members of a jackal group is 5 to 12, and there are also very large groups, which can reach 30.
The group structure of jackals is somewhat complex, and the members may not be related by blood, and their living habits are more inclined to African wild dogs.
Members of the Jackal Group love each other
There is a clear division of labor among the groups, ranging from those who are specifically responsible for hunting to those who are specifically responsible for caring for their cubs.
Members of the hunt need to regurgitate the food to the members who are not involved in the hunt, as well as the cubs, and if the member is injured, then it will also enjoy care.
This way of life allowed jackals to be widely distributed in Asia for a time, and they were found in the eastern, southeastern and southern regions of Asia.
Because it is hunted in groups, the reputation of jackals was once very ferocious in the folk, and even ranked ahead of wolves, tigers and leopards, so there was an idiom "jackal tiger leopard".
Jackals that were once widely distributed
However, jackals, which were once at least a million in number, are now rarely seen, and some even think that jackals are extinct.
Some people even believe that the jackal is a sacred beast recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and it does not exist.
The reason for thinking so is that I know too little about jackals, and the reason why I know less is because it is difficult to find jackals.
So, where are the jackals? Do they still live on Earth?
Jackals in the wild
Humans chop jackals
Jackals are not extinct, they still live on Earth, but the number of jackals in the wild has been extremely reduced, and it is estimated that it should be around 900 to 2000.
These jackals are scattered in all corners of Asia, far from the inhabited areas, hidden in dense forests and mountains, and even at high altitudes.
Because in the thousands of years of conflict with the human land, the jackal was defeated.
Jackals' recipes range from insects and rats to cattle and sheep, and even if the herd is large enough, they dare to beat tigers.
This also makes the jackals fearless in nature, and even prey on human livestock, which touches the interests of human beings.
Human grazing
But if it is related to human interests, then the end is basically not good.
In order to protect their livestock, humans launched a "jackal cutting operation" against the jackal, which lasted for thousands of years.
The jackals were defeated by such an impact, and the surviving jackals were timid and cautious, and they began to gradually move away from the crowd.
Later, the range of human activities increased and deforestation began, which reduced the habitat area of the jackal, resulting in the extinction of jackals in many areas.
Under these two waves, the number of jackals has become smaller and smaller, so small that it is difficult for people to find them in the wild.
Jackals in the forest
According to observations, only Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan in the southwest region of the mainland have been recorded, and qinghai, Gansu and Xinjiang in the northwest region have recorded jackals, and most of the sightings are nature reserves.
Normally, jackals need 3 to 5 male and female mixed groups to develop into jackals, and many human environments in the mainland do not meet this standard, and there is no mature captive jackal group.
The only jackals left in the wild are not in a good position, in addition to the severe shrinkage of the population, they also face the crisis of food shortages.
Jackals are social animals, strictly speaking they are omnivores, eating everything, but certainly still mainly meat.
Jackals are social animals
Their food also needs habitat, but unfortunately, as the forest area decreases, some medium and large herbivores also decrease or even disappear here.
There is also serious poaching, so that the jackals can prey on fewer and fewer objects, even if the jackals are found in the wild, they are also yellow-faced and thin.
In fact, not only jackals, but also the other three animals in the idiom, life is not good.
The area of forests is decreasing
Jackals, Tigers and Leopards
Wolves and jackals are related to each other, they are both members of the canine family, wolves are canines, and jackals are jackals.
Wolves on the mainland were once distributed throughout the country, and there are still some differences between wolves in different places.
For example, wolves in the south are generally thinner than wolves in the north, Mongolian wolves can withstand the drought of the Gobi Desert, and Tibetan wolves can run and chase Tibetan antelopes on the plateau.
However, wolves, like jackals, move in groups, and almost everything is fragmented everywhere they go, which makes humans fear them.
In particular, the wolves on the grassland were ruthlessly slaughtered and once extinct.
Steppe wolves
Leopard refers to the leopard, also known as the golden leopard in the mainland, in the traditional culture of the continent, people are afraid and love the leopard.
Afraid of it because the leopard's whereabouts are mysterious, it is difficult for humans to detect its existence, and by the time it is discovered, it is already too late.
Love it because leopards always act alone, have a very strong strength, people, are Mu Qiang.
No matter which dynasty, as long as it is necessary to draw animals on official clothes, leopards will never be absent.
Leopard fur is very precious in the eyes of the ancients, whether it is out of fear to get rid of it, or want to make it into fur, leopard has not escaped the poisonous hands of humans.
A golden leopard that can climb a tree
Even more ferocious than the leopard, of course, is the tiger known as the "king of the hundred beasts", which is the highest status beast in Chinese culture, second only to the dragon and the phoenix.
Considering that dragons and phoenixes do not exist in reality, then tigers are real No.1.
Tigers directly crush all carnivores in the same region in terms of size and strength, otherwise there would be no idiom of "like a tiger adding wings".
The idiom means that tigers are omnipotent, and if you add a pair of wings, it is the most powerful.
Although tigers are strong, the higher the food chain, the more vulnerable the population will be.
Tiger, the king of the hundred beasts
The territory of a tiger, especially a male tiger, is very large, generally more than 100 square kilometers, and it is directly a mountain in the wild.
Human activities have led to smaller and smaller habitats for tigers in the wild, overlap between tigers' territories, intensified intra-species competition, and eventually life-and-death struggles have begun within tigers.
It is also for this reason that the South China tiger, which is unique to the mainland, has become extinct in the wild.
The four animals in the idiom "Jackal, Tiger and Leopard" are basically endangered.
The ancients went out into the wild and prayed not to touch these four animals, but now zoologists are begging them to come out, but they have not been seen at all.
There are no more South China tigers in the wild
Nature cannot live without jackals
The news that wild boars have sprung into the streets and hurt people in many provinces on the mainland has made people wonder why there are suddenly so many second masters and brothers.
The reason is that the environmental protection is good, the second master brother can give birth, and soon breed a large number of wild boars.
However, the natural enemies of the Second Master Brother could never come back.
The Jackal, The Tiger and Leopard are exactly the natural enemies of the Second Master Brother in the wild.
Predators like this at the top of the food chain have recovered slowly, and even in some areas they have been unable to recover or even become extinct.
Wild boar down the hill
These four animal habitats overlap and compete with each other, while also maintaining the ecological balance of an area.
Now, however, the balance has been upset, and their populations have diminished with human intervention, keeping up with the breeding rate of their own food, the wild boar.
That's why wild boars are flooded and lawless.
No way, humans have to spend a lot of effort to clean up the wild boar.
Wild boar floods humans have to be cleaned up artificially
So a strange thing happened: first a lot of effort and a lot of money was spent to protect the environment, and then the wild boar was protected, but it flooded, and then a lot of effort and money was spent to eliminate some of the wild boar.
After half a day, where are people to play each other, if the jackal is still there, are we like this?
Fortunately, jackals have not been cut down by humans, although the number is no longer as good as before, but there are still some good villains in the wild.
There may be an opportunity in the future to breed more jackals and restore a certain population.
Jackals in the wild are hunting
One day, the Jackal, Tiger and Leopard will appear again in the same forest.