Thursday, August 17, 2006

Canaan Dogs

I saw a Canaan Dog at Independence Park today while I was waiting for M to come out of Post 1.

Canaan dogs are indigenous to this area, and there is evidence of them from ancient times. I saw a special on tv a while back about a woman who is trying to increase the genetic diversity in the ones that are being bred by breeders by going to some of the Bedouin camps and borrowing the males they use to herd their sheep.

There are still wild packs of them around, but because they were domesticated once and have sort of remained near people, especially the Bedouin, they are only semi-feral. The pack in the picture below lives near my house. They bark when you come by, but they neither run at you nor away.

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