The jackal is, I think, a more difficult animal to kill with hounds than the fox. He does not play the game as the fox does. He is as cunning, as intelligent, as wild, but he is far less sophisticated, and it used to please me to think that perhaps in the chase of the jackal we saw hunting as it was in an earlier phase than that at which it has now arrived in England.
Jackal coursing involves the pursuit ofjackals (usually thegolden jackal andblack-backed jackal) withdogs.
Jackal coursing was an occasional pastime for sportsmen inBritish India.English Foxhounds were usually imported to India for the purpose.[2] Due to the comparatively hotter weather, jackal hounds were rarely long lived.[3] Indian jackals were not hunted often in this manner, as they were slower than foxes and could scarcely outrungreyhounds after 200 yards.[4] According toThomas C. Jerdon, although jackals are easily pulled down by greyhounds and give an excellent run with foxhounds, they are nonetheless cunning animals which willsham death when caught, and will ferociously protect their packmates.[5]
Salukis were a popular choice of breed for jackal coursing in theMāzandarān Province;Rudyard Kipling wrote of a Persian proverb in his novelKim which states "The jackal that lives in the wilds of Mazandaran can only be caught by the hounds of Mazandaran."[6] British sportsmen pursued jackals inCeylon as well, though hounds would not attack jackals.Reginald Innes Pocock speculated that this was due to Ceylonese dogs being closely related to the local jackals, and would thus not attack their own kind.[7]
InSouth Africa, black-backed jackal coursing was first introduced to theCape Colony in the 1820s byLord Charles Somerset who, as well as being an avid fox hunter, sought a more effective method of managing jackal populations, as shooting proved ineffective.[8] Coursing jackals also became a popular pastime in theBoer Republics,[3] particularly inOrange Free State, where it was standard practise to flush them from their dens withterriers and send greyhounds in pursuit. This was fraught with difficulty however, as jackals were difficult to force out of their earths, and usually had numerous exits to escape from.[9] This method is still used by farmers inFree State.[10] In the western Cape in the early 1900s, dogs bred by crossingfoxhounds,lurchers andborzoi were used.[8]