Golden jackal
The golden jackal is similar to the gray wolf but is distinguished by its smaller size, lighter weight, more elongated torso, less-prominent forehead, shorter legs and tail, and a muzzle that is narrower and more pointed. The legs are long in relation to its body, and the feet are slender with small pads. Males measure in body length and females . Males weigh and females weigh . The shoulder height is for both. In comparison, the smallest wolf is the Arabian wolf ("Canis lupus arabs"), which weighs on average .
Dietary biology of the golden eagle
The estimated typical range of weights of hares hunted by golden eagles is , whereas rabbits hunted weigh a little under on average. Except for the occasional Arctic hare, white-tailed or antelope jackrabbit ("Lepus alleni"), most leporids hunted in North America weigh or less, including the smallest hare in the world, the snowshoe hare, and the smallest rabbit in the world, the pygmy rabbit ("Brachylagus idahoensis"). In Europe, where the large brown and mountain hares, both sometimes weighing over , are habitually hunted, the prey may be dismembered before being brought to the nest. Across the golden eagle's range, hares and rabbits are generally known to be hunted via either "high soar with glide attack" or "contour flight with short glide attack". Leporids are basically solitary animals but they can occur at high densities, such as when jackrabbits are at their peak numbers in brushy areas of Western North America or (historically at least) rabbits in similar brush habitats on the Iberian Peninsula. The goal of the golden eagle while hunting hares and rabbits is to catch the prey when it is foraging out in the open. If the leporid becomes aware of the eagle's descent upon them more than a few seconds before the strike, they invariably break into a fast, hopping run. Once contact is made, rabbits and hares will often kick or try to bite the eagle but escape is unlikely once they are pinned to the ground. In some case they are able to reach vegetative coverage and, if the said cover is sufficiently deep and dense, the eagle cannot pursue them any further. Although rare, golden eagles have been known to use the "walk and grab attack" to pull a leporid out of its cover. Many hunts in Scotland of mountain hare involve a somewhat lengthy tail chase. If the golden eagle is able to intercept a rabbit or hare far out in the open, a twisting and turning tail chase frequently occurs but the odds of survival for the prey are smaller the farther they are from coverage. On occasion, breeding pairs have been observed hunting jackrabbits together, where one will stoop on a gathering of them while the other waits out of sight and assaults one of the jackrabbits being made to run.