Teeth that Bite and Claws that Scratch: Wolves vs Jackals

The Essay

Teeth that Bite and Claws that Scratch

A Comparison and Contrast Essay Between Two Amazing Canines

By

AnimalRights10

The astounding amount of power it took to continue that howl was astonishing. As the howl crossed the icy tundra landscape of Alaska and the hot desert of Central Africa, the results were spine-tingling. One cut through the silence of the night, the voices lifted by the chilly Northern breeze. The other wafted across the dunes, carried by the sandy grains in the harsh wind. Both wolves and jackals are notorious canines in both their respective continents, as well as across the globe. Though both are endangered, the work of activists, charities, private organizations, and partial government groups have succeeded in mostly rescuing the jackal and the wolf from extinction. The two canines share many similarities, but both have their differences, whether that be in their physical descriptions, their habitats, their diets, and their social structures.

The physical description of wolves could mean many things. Wolves are mammals of the canines family, typically with a brown, white, gray, tawny, or black fur coat. Their fur is made up of two layers. The outer layer is more coarse, and has long hairs that can shed water and snow and also contain the pigments that give wolves their color. The inner layer is thick and soft, and insulates the wolf from the weather. Both of these layers are warm enough to allow wolves to comfortably tolerate in below zero climates, which explains why wolves are able to live in such extreme environments. During the early and mid months of spring, wolves shed their inner layers, which allow them to survive the hot summer months. Wolves also have cool eye colors, ranging from gold, brown, orange, green, and many varieties between. Around eight weeks after birth, the wolves lose their blue eyes they're given when their mothers give birth to them. Wolves also have long and slender legs, and narrow chests. Wolves usually weigh anywhere from 51 to 180 lbs. Their long legs allow them to run fast, which let them catch quicker prey like deer or moose. The bones in the forelegs – the ulna and the radius – are fused so as to let the wolves' legs be stronger. With these special legs, wolves can reach up to 45 miles per hour in short bursts, and can run entire marathons for days without tiring. To help them run, wolves have four claws. They also have two non-retractable claws called dewclaws, which act like our nails and grow through their lives. Jackals' fur comes in less varieties than a wolf's. They're usually tawny, reddish brown, or gold, along with white stripes and black or gold backs, depending on the species: golden-backed, black-backed, or side-striped. Jackal's eye colors are similar to a wolf's, with the colors ranging anywhere from brown to gold, as well as sometimes orange. Jackals are slender creatures as well, sometimes thinner than wolves. Their legs are fused together like the wolf's, so as to gain strength while running. Their large feet also help with their running endurance. Jackals are able to run up to 16 miles per hour, around the speed of a person. Their chests, narrow like a wolf's, make them smaller than a wolf by a fairly decent margin. Jackals weigh between 14 to 31 pounds. Both jackals and wolves share some similarities despite all these differences mentioned above. Jackals and wolves both have the same number of teeth, 42. They also have the same eye colors, like brown, gold, and orange. They can have the same fur colors, such as brown, tawny, or tan. Jackals are slightly smaller than wolves, though they can weigh around the same weight, although that is fairly uncommon.

Because of their double-layered fur, wolves can live in many different extreme climates. They can live in grasslands, woodlands, deserts, prairies, and tundras. Grasslands, woodlands, and prairies are common across the United States, and many wolves hunt smaller animals there, since bigger creatures are more scarce. But deserts and tundras are rarer. Only four deserts are found in the United States of America and her territories: the Great Basin Desert, the Mojave Desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, and the Sonoran Desert, according to Southwest US Landscapes. These four deserts are found more in the Southern and Midwestern states, such as Texas, Arizona, Nevada, California, New Mexico, and Utah. There is an even smaller amount of tundras in the US than deserts. There are only two types, both found in Alaska, the home of the wolf: the alpine tundra and the arctic tundra, the latter also found in Canada and the Arctic Circle.