A month or so ago Phil Roberts found a
young Golden Jackal C. aureus aureus in Jubail and managed to take a single photo. As Phil nor I
had seen Golden Jackel in Saudi Arabia we were not sure if it was one, or just
a hybrid dog. After asking a number of people for help it was concluded the
animal was a Jackal. The golden jackal is a medium-sized predator and omnivore.
It is a widely distributed canid, mainly in tropical, sub-tropical and southern
temperate areas in East and North Africa, SE Europe, Asia Minor, Caucasus,
Middle East, parts of Arabian peninsula, Iraq, Iran all Indian sub-continent
and Sri-Lanka to Burma and Thailand. In this huge range jackals occupy all
types of habitat except extreme deserts and dense forests. It is the most
northerly and most widely distributed of the three jackal species (C.
adustrus, C. mesomelas, C. aureus) and is the only jackal species that
occurs outside the Sub-Saharan Africa. Phil's photo is shown below and I am thankful to him for allowing me too use it on my website.
