Friday Chat w/ Vlad
Hey, it’s Vlad. Just as Jackalpalloza was settling down around here, the third musketeer has shown up and jackal mania has now been dialed up to 11. You see when JABCECC was first contacted about these black backed jackals, we were informed that there were potentially three babies that needed a perfect home. Since our motto here is “no canid gets left behind” of course we agreed to give all of them a home. This motto has roots that go to the very beginning of the center. Boris and Sophie were the first Belyaev foxes to come to JABCECC. Initially only one of them was going to be rescued. Management was told to choose which one would come to America to live the good life. This just wasn’t going to be OK so a way was found to not leave one of them behind. The same was true for me coming to the center. When a researcher fell in love with Panda, JABCECC was asked if there was a way to get her here so she could be happy. Management agreed but soon found out Panda had 8 pals. Once again, none of us were left behind. In light of this, it’s no surprise that all the jackals were offered a home. Unfortunately, before they could make the trip, one of them broke their leg. In order to allow her time to heal and have continuity of care, jackals Shaka and Zuri came first, followed by Nalla once she healed. Now that we have all gotten to see what a pistol Nalla can be, there have been discussions that her injury might have been an inside job.
It has become clear to me that if I am to have any chance of getting these guys under control, I needed to learn more about jackals. During this research I learned that Black Backed Jackals are the most basal of the dog like canids. This means they are at the base of the evolutionary tree having been around for millions of years. I told Yuri about the jackals being basal and after what appeared to be a bout of deep thought he exclaimed. “That’s great, but actually I prefer oregano”. Oh Yuri, a sweet guy but if he ever has an intelligent thought it will surely die of loneliness.
Vlad out.