Justine emailed through a couple of days some pretty shots of an animal that is well known, but not often seen in nature. We see them very regularly on our reserve however, and it is always a delight to see them. Sometimes one can observe them close-up, especially in the large open fields in the Muruti Wilderness area. However there are also several jackals living quite close to the lodge, on the other suide of the hill and their high-pitched yapping can often be heard in the night.
Now there is more than one type of jackals in the world, in fact there are three: the side-striped Jackal, the golden jackal and the Black-backed Jackal, which is the one one sees on our reserve. The golden jackals are genetically closer to wolves and coyotes than the other two sub-species.
We all know that in folksy tales (and films, see “The Jackal”) the jackal is known as a cunning smart being, and this is probably due to their facial expression.
As such jackals are mainly scavangers as well as hunters on birds and mice (similar to the European fox).
They are not particularly rare as they are very adaptable and do not need to much roaming space to work well.
