Language and the dogs

The movements of tail, ears, and mouth and the overall body posture are the main components of the candid visual v language. In foxes, these movements are simple; a wide open mouth, waving tail, and tightly pulled back ears signify threat. They also raise their hackles, but since the fur is relatively short, it is not as conspicuous as in the man wolf which has a black stripe along the back which contrasts with the russet fur on the rest of the body. Jackals do not originality hunt in packs; they do occasionally congregate to feed on carcass left by larger predators like lions.  Their ears and mouths movements are similar to those of the foxes, but they have developed more controlled tail movements for communicating with other jackals. They can wag their tails indicate friendliness and can also hold their tail in and up or down position depending how confident or afraid they are. The sides –stropped jackal a species from coyotes and dogs have developed a signed to warn their fellows if they are feeling aggressive which like air-raid sirem, gives the victim time to begin his escape. The victim can how ever stop and attack  by assuming a very submissive posture, turning over on his back , tucking his tail between his legs  pulling back his mouth corners in submissive ‘grin’ and spreading his ears apart at the base  which makes him looks smaller and gives the face a smooth flat appearance. The fact that an aggressive  wolf is not only inhibited from biting group members in a submissive posture but also gives a preliminarily  warning before attacking  is an important method by which arguments amongst wolves are prevented  becoming serious and leading to bloodshed. Also, this very complicated visual language enables group members to ‘converse’  with less misunderstanding than humans, where so often the facial expression conveys a meaning which is exact opposite of what is said.