Golden Jackals, Canis aureus, are the coyotes of Asia and Africa, and are pretty common around the Camp Victory Metroplex, which consists of several camps surrounding the Baghdad International Airport. They seem to be well adapted to life here, I assume that rodents, small reptiles, bird eggs and trash make up a good part of their diet. They are the only jackals native to Iraq. We’ve seen them all around on the several different camps, though as things have built up, the weeds, reeds and bushes have been cut down, so they aren’t as noticeable as they were a few months back.
We saw this one on a rapidly drying lake bed. He walked aroung the entire perimeter, stopping only when he noticed that he was only about 50′ from us.
Jackal pups that have been hand-raised can be quite easily tamed. They may be housebroken and behave rather like a pet dog. However, they will not allow themselves to be petted by strangers. Unfortunately, with the US Army’s policy of “no pets”, we haven’t been able to validate the authenticy this claim. This little guy walked right out in front of us on May 29th, looked, gave a little growl and ran off into the brush.
I am unsure about the species reddish jackal that we have also seen here.
It appears it could be a Simian Jackal, a species not native to Iraq. The previous owner of our area was fairly well known for importing and keeping exotic animals; there are still old cages over near the airport as evidence of this practice.
