Jackal Old Game

[Fisseha Aranda]

Whilethey do not form a monophyletic clade, all jackals are opportunistic omnivores, predators of small to medium-sized animals and proficient scavengers. Their long legs and curved canine teeth are adapted for hunting small mammals, birds, and reptiles, and their large feet and fused leg bones give them a physique well-suited for long-distance running, capable of maintaining speeds of 16 km/h (10 mph) for extended periods of time. Jackals are crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk.

Their most common social unit is a monogamous pair, which defends its territory from other pairs by vigorously chasing intruders and marking landmarks around the territory with their urine and feces. The territory may be large enough to hold some young adults, which stay with their parents until they establish their own territories. Jackals may occasionally assemble in small packs, for example, to scavenge a carcass, but they normally hunt either alone or in pairs.

The English word "jackal" dates back to 1600 and derives from the French chacal, derived from the Persian شغال shoghāl, origin is unknown, cognate with Sanskrit शृगल śṛgāla meaning "the howler" and Turkish akal, meaning fellow.[1][2]

Similarities between jackals and coyotes led Lorenz Oken, in the third volume of his Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte (1815), to place these species into a new separate genus, Thos, named after the classical Greek word θώς "jackal", but his theory had little immediate impact on taxonomy at the time. Angel Cabrera, in his 1932 monograph on the mammals of Morocco, questioned whether or not the presence of a cingulum on the upper molars of the jackals and its corresponding absence in the rest of Canis could justify a subdivision of that genus. In practice, Cabrera chose the undivided-genus alternative and referred to the jackals as Canis instead of Thos.[5]

Oken's Thos theory was revived in 1914 by Edmund Heller, who embraced the separate genus theory. Heller's names and the designations he gave to various jackal species and subspecies live on in current taxonomy, although the genus has been changed from Thos to Canis.[5]

The paraphyletic nature of Canis with respect to Lycaon and Cuon has led to suggestions that the two African jackals should be assigned to different genera, Schaeffia for the side-striped jackal and Lupulella for the black-backed jackal[10][11] or Lupulella for both.[11][12]

Like foxes and coyotes, jackals are often depicted as clever sorcerers in the myths and legends of their regions. They are mentioned roughly 14 times in the Bible. It is frequently used as a literary device to illustrate desolation, loneliness, and abandonment, with reference to its habit of living in the ruins of former cities and other areas abandoned by humans. It is called "wild dog" in several translations of the Bible. In the King James Bible, Isaiah 13:21 refers to 'doleful creatures', which some commentators suggest are either jackals or hyenas.[16]

In the Indian Panchatantra stories, the jackal is mentioned as wily and wise.[17] In Bengali tantrik tradition, they represent the goddess Kali. It is said she appears as jackals when meat is offered to her.

The three species differ mainly in color and choice of habitat. The sandy-colored golden jackal prefers open, grassy plains, while the side-striped jackal lives along waterways with dense undergrowth and is drabber in color, has a white tip on the tail, and had indistinct stripes along the sides of the body. The black-backed jackal is recognized by the mantle of black hair on the back that contrasts with the rust-colored body. The tail is black-tipped, as is that of the golden jackal. The black-backed jackal is usually the most frequently seen, as it is more diurnal than the other two species.

Increased habitat loss due to human population growth and resulting expansion of roads, settlements, and agriculture threatens the jackal. The livestock rearing and farming conducive to jackal and wildlife survival, are now being replaced by industrialization and unsustainable agricultural practices.

As habitats are lost, jackals are increasingly infringing on human settlements, where can be viewed as a danger to livestock and poultry and be killed as pests. They are also often persecuted as rabies transmitters.

African Wildlife Foundation works with pastoralist communities to develop appropriate preventative measures that prevent loss of livestock. In Tanzania, AWF is building bomas for communities living in close proximity to carnivores. Bomas are predator-proof enclosures where livestock are kept to prevent attacks. By taking proactive steps, we are able to prevent both livestock and carnivore deaths.

They usually live singly or in pairs but are occasionally found in loose packs of related individuals where their behavior is highly synchronized. They are among the few mammalian species in which the male and female mate for life. Mated pairs are territorial, and both the female and male mark and defend their territory.

Litters average two to four pups. It takes about ten days for the infants' eyes to open, and for the first few weeks of life, they remain in the thickets or holes where they were born. At about three weeks old, they begin to spend time outside playing with their littermates. At first, the games are clumsy attempts at wrestling, pawing, and biting. As they become more coordinated, they ambush and pounce, play tug of war, and chase each other. The mother changes den sites about every two weeks, so the young are less likely to be found by predators.

Sometimes pups will stay with their parents and help raise their younger siblings. Most jackal pup deaths occur during the first 14 weeks of life, so the presence of helpers increases the survival rate.

Jackals can best be described as opportunistic omnivores. They cooperatively hunt small antelopes and also eat reptiles, insects, ground-dwelling birds, fruits, berries, and grass. They will pick over kills made by large carnivores and even frequent rubbish dumps in pursuit of food.

So I've gotten into mounts rather late as some other games came out at the time, and have unlocked the Jackal finally. So I really have to ask, what exactly is the point of them...?I feel like I'm missing something here, I do like them, and I'm sure the Sand Portal thing will come in handy when I finally unlock it but like, the wiki says they can be used for precision jumping, but they can't teleport upwards onto a high cliff, they can't teleport downwards to a lower cliff, they can't be used for 90 degree teleports and they don't snap to a target or floor. So what do the Jackals do exactly besides Sand Portal? A short forward-teleport in midair?

One really odd thing I found about it was that during the heart to get one, talking to the Djinns they specifically say: "of course you can use the sand portal!" and then you get the Jackal can't use the portal, and it doesn't say that you actually can't use the portals without the mastery for them. I actually had to go hunting on the wiki to figure this out. Not to mention a THIRD level mastery? I mean I know masteries are easier to get now and the xp for them isn't nearly as much as like it was in heart of thorns, but it feels really redundant to put in a feature that's in the tutorial area but also locked until you get more masteries.

The point? You got me! Seems only to be useful in the one zone with sand portals, which makes it a gimmick. I mainly use Raptor, which is useful everywhere, and Springer and Skimmer where needed, also good in any zone. The only times I've ever used Jackal is when I've had to go through those sand portals. So, it's mainly useless to me.

I was also quite confused when I discovered I could not use a sand portal after acquiring my jackal. I filled the heart and purchased my jackal and immediately went to SW Desert Highlands to finally get the mastery point and POI in the big jugs and was confused when I couldn't jump into the portal and ended up splashing into the water. ( #1 )

Regardless of whether my confusion was my own fault due to overlooking some text at the Djinn that explained that portal use was locked behind a later mastery level or if it was not my fault due to that not being mentioned, the fact that, in the end, this ability is locked behind Jackal L3 disappoints me.

Raptor: it's the best for horizontal movement and with the movement skill, can be there fastest on- land speed but it's easy to get walled by small bumps. It's slow to turn from a stop and can struggle if you need to hop up a short obstacle.

Skimmer: one of my favorites. It sacrifices speed on dry land but it's easy to turn from a stop, can ignore changes in elevation, eliminated fall damage, can travel safely over dangerous terrain and with the jackal mastery, it can evade for a long time.

Jackal: nearly as fast as the raptor in horizontal speed but is better at turning both while moving or from a full stop. It can jump slightly higher to clear smaller obstacles and the sand portals are useful shortcuts it open up unaccessible areas. Lastly, the disengage skill, I feel, is more useful in general (things I probably would like the raptor to pull are immune to CC but a hefty barrier can help yourself and those close by).

It takes practice, but the Jackal really can do a "90 degree teleport". You have to jump, teleport (if needed for distance), then quickly turn the camera to face your goal and teleport again. It is NOT easy to do, much less accurately, but it's doable.

And while they can't teleport down to the ground from a high ledge, they calculate fall damage from where they fell from OR where the started to fall from after their last teleport. So jump off of a cliff, and teleport right before you hit. The jackal lands with no damage and no loss of speed.

Finally, check out the final mastery of the Jackal, and think about what that means. Once you have that, the raptor is effectively dodging while doing its long jump. And the skimmer? Yep, while it's doing the higher glide, it's dodging. Remember those tar mines that I'm sure dismounted you a time or twenty on the way to getting the jackal? Just press the space bar, and pass right over them, no problem. The Jackal's real power is that it makes the raptor and skimmer almost broken when it comes to ability to avoid being hit, you just need to master it.

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