Talk:Golden jackal/GA1

GA Review

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I'll take this on. Chiswick Chap (talk · contribs) 12:39, 25 November 2016 (UTC)

Lead

• Unless there is a source for "reed wolf" in English, the name should be removed. We should not be documenting Hungarian names here.

• Is there some special reason for the refs here in the lead? If not, please move them all into the article's body.

Done Mariomassone (talk) 10:10, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Etymology and naming

• Please supply an etymology for "jackal", it is readily available in dictionaries on- and offline.

• Please remove the section "Local and indigenous names", this is English Wikipedia. Readers can look down the "languages" list on the left if they want names in other languages.

• Please rename section to "Etymology".

Done. Mariomassone (talk) 09:56, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Physical description

• Replace "Melanists" with "Melanism" and edit sentence to be in the singular, i.e. "occurs", "was".

Done. Mariomassone (talk) 09:57, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Taxonomy and evolution

• The first paragraph does not mention the golden jackal at all; I suggest we remove it. It would suit an article on canids.

Done.Mariomassone (talk) 10:03, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

• Replace "the most typical" with "typical" - claim is quite strong enough unless you have very good reason (it would require a direct quote).

Done.Mariomassone (talk) 10:03, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

• "During 2015, a study ... concluded": please focus on the results. It will be enough to say "Mitochondrial genome and whole genome nuclear sequence analysis showed ..."

Done Mariomassone (talk) 10:38, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

• Why not put the dates of divergence (1.3 mya and 1.9 mya) into the cladogram (using "|label2= "). It's highly relevant.

Not sure how to do this without making a mess. Someone more confident with composing cladograms should intervene. Mariomassone (talk) 10:06, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Done.

• "In an attempt to understand ... an international team of researchers ... The results showed": this is an article about the animal, not research projects. Please reword to focus on the results. It might run "Genetic analysis of microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA showed that ..."

Done Mariomassone (talk) 10:08, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Seems still to be there?

Done (again) Mariomassone (talk) 10:18, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

• "In 2015, hybridization..." (etc throughout the paragraph): please reword to focus on the results; you might like to add a footnote ({{efn|In Croatia ... in Bulgaria ...}} and add a {{notelist}} at the end) if it's really necessary to mention these minor details.

Done. In-depth info located in Jackal-dog hybrid Mariomassone (talk) 08:38, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Behaviour

• Please remove the word "behaviour(s)" from the subsection headings of this section, once is enough.

Done Mariomassone (talk) 10:11, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Range and conservation

• Please update the range map to be consistent with the text; for instance, Poland is mentioned but not shown. So are several other places.

May be difficult, as so far the only other maps for reference just show dots where sightings took place, so they can be considered provisional. Maybe the current ones should have the caveat "... as of 2015?"Mariomassone (talk) 08:36, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

All right, I'll take a raincheck on that one. I've added a note to the caption. Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:58, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

• The Europe subsection goes into a lot of detail with dates right down to the day when "A dead adult was found". If timings are needed at all, it should be a bit less recentist; perhaps dates could be given in broad ranges, and several reports could be combined into a shorter coverage. Given that the species' range extends all the way to Southeast Asia, the amount of text on Europe smacks of regionalism, too. I suggest we have one or two paragraphs on Europe, mentioning briefly where jackals were known in the 1970s, in the 1990s, and since 2005 or so, and using all the current references without describing them. Words like "recently" should not be used anywhere.

Moved to European jackal, will attempt to shorten section here.Mariomassone (talk) 08:36, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Done Mariomassone (talk) 08:45, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

A great improvement. I've added a hatnote.

Diseases and parasites

• I wonder whether the lists of species wouldn't be better in footnotes.

Relationships with humans

• Not sure the 2 paragraphs speculating on whether the bible meant jackals when it said something else are justified. Perhaps these could be shortened and made into one brief paragraph, again possibly with the use of a footnote.

Done Mariomassone (talk) 10:37, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Possibly an excessively long footnote, but at least it's out of the way.

• Wikilink coypu.

Done Mariomassone (talk) 10:31, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

References

• What is the function of the Further reading (a paper and a thesis)? If these are genuinely useful they should be used in the text. But I suspect they're just "archaeology".

Done Mariomassone (talk) 10:40, 26 November 2016 (UTC)

Summary

This is a fine and well-structured article that paints a detailed and up-to-date picture of this species. It's now certainly up to GA standard. Chiswick Chap (talk) 09:00, 29 November 2016 (UTC)