Safari Notes: Jackal and Vultures

By: Mark Levy, 28th May 2006

During a game drive in Mombo, in the Okavango Delta, we came across a scene involving jackal and vultures. A young, shy cheetah male had killed an impala and was chased off the carcass pretty quickly by a large number of vultures. The birds were landing frequently and the sky was dotted with them. The vultures were feeding and fighting with each other, when they were joined by four black backed jackals who in turn fought pretty vigorously for a share of the kill. The feeding frenzy continued while the vultures and jackal continued to fight . At one point a jackal had bitten one of the vultures who then lay down on the ground feigning severe injury - a ploy which stopped further attack by the jackal!

The fighting between the jackal themselves was quite furious; in fact they had their hackles raised most of the time. At one point, during this sighting we were surprised to see the white backed vultures suddenly stop fighting for food, and spread their wings facing the sun. The reason for this behaviour was that the sun had come out, and we realised they were drying their wings.  This was the first time that we had seen this behaviour. Later this year, we were to witness similar behaviour at the Mara River in Kenya, where the vultures congregate in anticipation of wildebeeste crossings.