cat? According to the scientific classification, both belong to the order of predators, hunt by hunting, viviparous, have a coat, fangs ... Yes, and the external resemblance of some cats and dogs is very large. But in nature, they are easy to distinguish by the way they get food. Cats hide prey, lie in wait, and dogs pursue.

That is why the cat is so clean, insinuating, secretive. She even buries her excrement so as not to expose herself in an ambush. The dog, hunting, on the contrary, advertises itself, makes noise, instilling fear in the pursued victim.

Based on the analysis of behavioral characteristics, M. Fox simplistically divided the canines into three groups. To the first category, he attributed those species of animals that lead a flock of life, form stable groups and prey mainly on victims, larger than them. These are species such as the gray wolf, hyena dog, Asian red wolf and bush dog.

In the second category, he attributed the jackals, coyotes and the American red wolf. These animals lead a paired lifestyle, puppies are separated from their parents during the first year. The basis of their diet is small animals - rodents, birds ...

The third section includes all other species: various foxes, arctic fox, raccoon dog and maned wolf. They are small prey hunters. Most of the year they live alone, uniting in pairs during the breeding season and feeding the young.

Is it really that simple?
Of course not. And this classification is somewhat rough, primitive. Moreover, further observations of animals have shown that puppies of the common jackal, coyote and black-backed jackal may not be separated from their parents, so that in the second year a flock of two generations is formed, and older children help parents raise puppies of the second generation.

Our Russian hunters in the last century knew about such features among wolves and called teenage puppies PEREYARK.

The big-eared African fox is also out of M. Fox's scheme. These animals feed on termites and live in groups that include several animals of different ages and young. This means that in terms of social organization they should be ranked in the first category, and in terms of the way they eat, in the third.

Recently, zoologists have been convinced that canines quite easily change their skills and habits, adapting to the changing environment. And if earlier the same African big-eared fox was considered a narrowly adapted animal (it fed mainly on termites), now in some regions these foxes are switching to eating small rodents, insects, reptiles and fruits in the form of berries, tubers of edible plants.

What is he, a wolf?
The most versatile, plastic among canine common wolf. These are highly specialized animals that live in well-organized packs.

“A mighty chest cry, echoing from the rocks, rolls down the mountain and freezes in the far reaches of the darkness of the night. This is an explosion of wild, proud sorrow and contempt for all the vicissitudes and dangers of the world.

Not a single living being will remain indifferent to this cry.

So writes the scholar Oldl Leopold. And what In recent decades, the wolf has been studied very intensively (especially in the USA and Canada), that there is a special branch of science - “wolf science”, that dozens of monographs and collections have been published, hundreds of articles are another confirmation of the unusualness of this beast.

In our country, the attitude towards wolves is very peculiar. They are shot from helicopters, and bonuses are still paid for those killed.

Is the jackal cowardly?
Talking about canines, one cannot help but talk about JACKALS, which for some reason gained the fame of cowardly and mischievous animals. Perhaps they owe this unflattering reputation to Kipling and his Mowgli?

Small, the size of a cur, predators of the genus of jackals feed on rodents, reptiles, insects, birds. Carrion, which is an important part of the diet of the common jackal, is almost absent in the diet of the Ethiopian. The Ethiopian jackal is a very rare species listed in the Red Book. There is also a STRIPED jackal, which is common in southern Africa. The BLACK jackal, a very graceful swift-footed animal, is also often found there.

A study of these species of jackals by Patricia Moehman showed a significant difference between these species. It turns out that jackals actively hunt large (in comparison with them) game, primarily young gazelles. They hunt in pairs.

Jackals are completely in vain called cowardly. There is a movie fact showing how a married couple drives away a hyena, an animal very predatory and larger than a wolf, from the lair when it tries to attack their puppies. Jackals act harmoniously and very decisively.

Where did the dingo come from?
In a story about canines, it would simply not be respectable not to mention the Australian DINGO. (There is also a New Zealand dingo, discovered only in 1956, but it is not of particular interest. A small, jackal-sized dog with strongly protruding fangs, a hunter of insects, reptiles, and rodents).

Australian dingoes are more respectable in size, animals of the highest reaction and courage. It was previously believed that they were brought to Australia by the aborigines 9 thousand years before our era. However, archaeological data show that dingoes live in Australia for only 3-4 thousand years. This is the largest predatory mammal in the country, they successfully hunt kangaroos, ostriches, cassowaries, as well as domestic sheep. Recently, experiments have been conducted on the domestication of dingoes, on the use of their for official purposes. But dingoes raised by man are often prone to vagrancy.

Can you tame a wolf?
K. Lorenz is a famous ethologist, animal specialist, Nobel laureate. He tells. “If you take a non-domesticated canine puppy into your home and raise it as a dog, you can easily imagine that the need for care and attention from a wild young is tantamount to the lifelong bond that exists between most of our domestic dogs and their owners. A captive wolf cub is usually timid, preferring dark corners, and obviously afraid of crossing open spaces. He is extremely distrustful of strangers, and if such a person tries to stroke him, he can violently and without any warning cling to the caressing hand. From birth, he is inclined to bite out of fear, but he attaches himself to the owner and relies on him in the same way as a puppy.

If we are talking about a female who, in the normal course of events, grows up, begins to perceive the male leader as the "master", experienced trainers sometimes manage to take the place of such a leader at a time when the female's childhood dependence is fading, and thus ensure her affection and in the future. One Viennese policeman managed to win such loyalty from his famous she-wolf Poldi. But the one who brings up the male wolf will inevitably be disappointed - as soon as the wolf becomes an adult, he suddenly ceases to obey the owner and keeps absolutely independently.

Neither malice nor ferocity appears in his behavior towards the former owner - he still treats him like a friend, but it will no longer occur to him to blindly obey the owner, and, perhaps, he will even try to subjugate him and become a leader. Considering the strength of wolf teeth, it is not surprising that this procedure sometimes acquires a rather bloody character.

DOG IN THE OLD
What did ancient people know about dogs?
The fact that the ancients perceived animals as individuals with a soul is quite remarkable. And do not consider our ancestors naive and superstitious. In some ways they were closer than we are to nature, they understood it more subtly.

In the Avesta, the oldest religious and cultural monument of the East, purely human features are attributed to dogs. They are divided into priests, warriors, farmers, wanderers singers, wild animals, courtesans and children.

Muslims consider a dog to be unclean. Touching it, a Muslim must conduct a series of purifications. But this strict law did not apply to greyhounds. In contact with it, the believer does not lose bodily purity.

In many religions, the dog occupies a worthy place in the pantheon of gods. In Egypt, the god of the dead, Anubis, was represented as a man with the head of a dog. And the center of his cult was Kinopol - "the city of the dog."

When a dog died in an Egyptian family, the whole family went into deep mourning. They were buried in a special cemetery.

The Romans carved the image of dogs on coins.

What are the legends about dogs?
The Ostyaks, who live along the Kureika River (the right tributary of the Yenisei beyond the Arctic Circle), at one time believed that the most dissolute of the numerous sons of God had been turned into a dog. This happened when God created the earth and people (according to the Ostyaks, the taiga and their people).

One day he saw that people were in great grief: they were standing in a crowd around a man lying motionless on the ground - their hunting companion fell from the rocks and crashed. Then God sent one of his sons to earth to calm the people and tell them not to grieve, because on the seventh day this person will come to life again. But the son of God did not like to obey the "daddy" (father), he went to the earth to the people and told them not to cry, but rather to dig a hole and bury the deceased deeper. People implicitly carried out supposedly God's will. Since then, death has come to earth.

God was seriously angry with his disobedient son, who violated his will so deeply