This is another black-backed jackal of the Cape subspecies. This one is normally colored, but it lacks the distinct saddle back that gave the species its name. Â It still has stripes running down its side, but because it doesn’t have a white-tipped tail and a bulbous looking head, we know it is a black-backed jackal.
I’m calling this color phase “sable,” because the gold hairs appear to be banded and mixed in with black, in a very similar way to the sable collie.
See other phases (all from the Cape subspecies):
Color phases are not mentioned in any of the literature on black-backed jackals, but they clearly come in more colors besides the normal coloration.
And the genetics of these phases are worth examining for a very simple reason: Black -backed jackals are the oldest extant species in the genus Canis. We might be able to glean some understanding of how different colorations in this genus evolved, simply by looking at this animal, which is fairly similar to the basal Canis from which all of these animals descended. For example, it might be that the golden phase is caused by the same genotype that causes recessive red (e/e) in domestic dogs. That finding would suggest that this color and those genes have been in the genus for a very long time– thereby predating yellow and red domestic dogs by millions of years.
These animals are not chemically interfertile with other members of the genus, so these color phases were not introduced through cross-breeding with domestic dogs. If it has the same genetic basis, then it would be very unlikely that the exact same mutation affected domestic dogs and black-backed jackals at different times in history. If it is the same genetic basis, then this color is quite ancient– black backed jackals split off from the rest of the genus perhaps as early as 4.5 million years ago.
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Natural History 