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Black backed Jackal

The Kruger National Park is visited by scores of local and foreign travellers each year all eager to take in the magnificent sights and breathless array of wildlife and plant life on offer. With a convenient location in South Africa and well-trained experts and guides on-hand, the Kruger National Park is indeed a terrific and memorable landmark in the country. One of the more fascinating animals on display at the Park is the sub-Saharan African native known as the Black Backed Jackal. With their almost dog-like features, these jackals are widespread throughout the region and sport sandy tan to reddish fur coats, have saddles on their backs, and their tails are long, mixed with black and white hairs. Known as cunning creatures, the Black Backed Jackal has extremely acute senses that are well-attuned, especially those of smell and hearing. They have spent thousands of years honing their abilities to become efficient predators by adapting and learning from the larger predators they encounter. Visitors to the Kruger Park are urged to take note of the way they walk as this shows when they are hunting; when hunting, the Black Backed Jackal walks slower than usual and its large ears are pricked up, ready and alert. These species’ successful survival rates are mainly because of their ability to adapt to different environmental changes; their highly flexible character is down to their small body size and mobility, along with a lack of specialised habitat and food requirements. Farmers tend to be quite cagey knowing jackals are in the area, but the creature itself is fairly wary of human beings and is not known to be overly aggressive to larger animals such as sheep. Visitors to the Kruger National Park will be able to view the Black Backed Jackal during the day time and even at night when the jackal is likely to be out scavenging for food.