Only one in three

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For most of us, getting something to eat is as easy as opening the fridge. And there’s usually a choice. For moggy or best friend Fido, it’s almost as easy. (I admit to never having come across a dog called Fido, but you know what I mean.}

However, for wild animals, it’s a different matter altogether. Dragon flies top the success stakes with a 95% kill rate, followed by orcas who average between 85% and 95%. Wild dogs, hunting in packs, average between 80% and 85% while the king of the jungle only manages a lowly 20% to 25%. (All according to Ms Google.) Going to bed on an empty stomach is not unusual.

While travelling though the Mountain Zebra Park recently, I stopped to watch a black backed jackal on the hunt. The stealth and patience displayed. It stood poised for ages, then pounced. With a one-in-three success rate, it missed, despite a frantic digging and scratching follow-up effort. I’m not sure who was more disappointed, me or the jackal.

With a dust stirring shake of its body and a lick of its lips, the animal was back on the job. Listening. Stalking. Poising. Pouncing.

Jackals often hunt in pairs, making the odds of grabbing a meal a bit higher. In fact, being omnivorous, a diet of birds, insects, reptiles and rodents is sometimes even supplemented by fruit – although what that fruit might be, I have no idea. Of course, they’re also master scavengers, happy to sit at the lion’s table – albeit at some distance – to share in the spoils.

I once stayed on a guest farm in the Northern Cape where the owner made a lucrative living by selling semen from simmental cattle - but that’s another story, I guess. Anyway, he also kept sheep and we were approaching the lambing season. Consequently, he'd contracted the regional Jackal Catcher, a professional hunter, to rid his farm of vermin. Despite the fact that the entire farm is surrounded by jackal fencing, designed to keep the animals out, I was horrified to find eleven dead jackals on the lawn the next morning.

I try not to think of the Jackal Catcher when I eat lamb.