Veld Facts

Jackals are members of the dog family that inhabit the savannah. Their adaptability and resourcefulness have made them some of the most successful predators. In many livestock farming areas where lions, leopards and cheetahs have been eradicated, the blackbacked jackal has filled the niche of top predator. Because of this, farmers are locked in an eternal battle with jackals, which have the uncanny ability to become inconspicuous in areas where they’re heavily persecuted. They might not be seen often, but they’re still quite common. There is the theory that farmers, in their quest to eliminate jackals, have actually sped up natural selection by killing all the “dumb” animals. The cleverer ones that manage to evade the traps, cages and poison, have been left to breed, creating a kind of “super” jackal that is all but invincible to the onslaughts of man. Jackals will prey on anything from insects and rodents to mediumsized antelope. They play an important role in an ecological sense because they seek out the weak and sick in a population, keeping the population fit and healthy. The problem is, jackals consider livestock young to be “weak”, which has a huge economic effect on farmers and explains the conflict. The social life of jackals is very interesting to study. Jackals are said to mate for life and a pair will claim a territory and live there. However, when lots of food becomes available (like an animal carcass), many different individuals will come together. At the carcass, the various animals will display submissive and dominant behaviour more common in social animals that live in packs or prides. This raises the question: Do jackals not live as separate members of a larger pack? As with many things in nature, more in-depth study and observation is required to solve the mystery.