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  • 2 days ago
Dear Friends,

A friend called me to let me know there was the remains of a Water Buffalo carcass in one of the streams on the Lake Delta that the golden jackals were feeding on so that same afternoon I packed up my gear and headed down there to see what I might be lucky enough to record.

I found the location of the carcass, set up my pop-up hide and began the wait melting under the sun in 39C heat.

Within the hour though I was rewarded as some jackals returned and I was lucky enough to be able to record some of their behaviour around the carcass witnessing first hand the hierarchy of the more senior female jackal claiming the meal for herself and warning off others lower in the pecking order.

I hope you enjoy the video.
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Category

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Travel
Transcript
00:28Transcription by CastingWords
00:31Okay, hello my friends, I hope you're all doing well. You find me back in the pop-up hide, and
00:38this afternoon I'm at a location down on the lake delta, along a stream, where a friend of mine called
00:49me this morning to tell me that there was a, what remains, of a water buffalo carcass, and that jackals
00:56were feeding upon it.
00:58So, I've come down this afternoon to stake it out. I found the location, found the carcass and everything.
01:07The only problem with the spot that it's in, is it's in sort of a, the stream that runs through
01:13here is in a little gully.
01:16So, the only view, so from the sides, the, I have no view of the, um, the water, uh, and
01:23the carcass itself.
01:24So, I've had to come downstream from it, uh, and to get a shot up the stream, uh, and be
01:33at a, as, as eye level as I can to the water and the carcass, uh, to get a decent
01:39shot.
01:40Um, the only problem is that I am quite close to, uh, the carcass. I'm probably, what, 50 meters away?
01:4760? Something like that.
01:50Which means that, potentially, my presence here will put them off coming.
01:55Um, but like I said, it's the only shot that's worth getting.
02:00Um, and, um, so I thought it's worth a risk. Why not?
02:05I mean, if I do put them off, the carcass is still there. They can always feed on it later
02:11when I leave in the night.
02:12So, it's not as if I'm depriving them of anything.
02:19It's, uh, just about four o'clock right now.
02:25Um, and it's about 38, 39 degrees. Super hot. I'm absolutely leaking everywhere.
02:31I have a liter or so of, uh, iced coffee to keep me going.
02:37Until 8, 8.30, when the sun goes down.
02:41And the light becomes golden. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few shots at that time.
02:45When the light is beautiful. We shall see.
02:48So, that's the setup. Um, and, uh, fingers crossed, uh, despite me being quite close, they will come back.
02:58So, I shall catch up with you in a bit, hopefully, with, uh, some jackals in the shot.
03:02So, see in a sec.
03:03Okay.
03:05I've just opened the side window of the hide and there's some jackals just watching me from over here.
03:12He's just crossed the stream.
03:15He's just not sure what to make of him.
03:24Because the wind is blowing a little bit now as well.
03:28So, it's rustling the, uh, camouflage.
03:30So, it's rustling the, uh, camouflage.
03:36Okay, he's coming.
03:44He's coming.
03:45He's coming.
03:56He's coming.
04:06He's coming.
04:12He's coming.
04:25Okay.
04:30I say he could very well be a sheep.
05:25Actually, I think it's a sheep.
05:26I think it's a sheep.
06:07First one is having a tug of war pulling the buffalo from the snout, trying to drag it
06:13out of the water it looks like.
06:38I think it's a sheep.
06:46I think it's a sheep.
06:48I don't know if you can hear the beeping, that's the buffalo herdsman, he's further
06:57around there with the hud of buffalo, that's the lazy way of herding, basically they follow
07:04in their car and they beep the, beep the herd to move them on.
07:33The other one is just lining the grass further up, the embankment.
07:48Leave this recording a little wide for a second to get an overview of the situation.
08:02I'm going to try and get a couple of shots on the stills as well, if I can.
08:16This camera is going to make a noise.
08:34She looked at me for a moment there, she could definitely hear the noise, but she's taken with
08:43them.
08:51That's what I was relying on.
08:55They'd be so involved with the actual carcass that they wouldn't bother with my presence
09:00here at all.
09:06Let's just take a break now, Sally.
09:13Okay.
09:16She's gone.
09:18What the hell?
09:19I don't think it was related to my snapping away.
09:29The other one is joining here as well, it seems.
09:38I'm loath to follow them with the camera because they're almost more sensitive to movement.
09:47So because the lens is sticking out of the hide I don't want to move it in case they see
09:51the movement and get more suspicious of that.
10:00She does look like she's coming back again.
10:08And she's not in any hurry that would indicate that she's been unnecessarily spooked or anything.
10:45It's the buffalo because they're accompanied by dogs as well.
10:52So that's probably what's doing it.
11:03She definitely looks like she wants to come back.
11:07Here she comes.
11:32She's thecrosstalk.
11:46That the apologize with the beeping is very annoying me now.
11:56He's ruining my background audio.
12:02I think I'll get some more shots from the stills.
12:06I was just sat there facing me, having a feed.
12:53I've got a feed.
12:58So what I'm trying to do as well is alternate shots between tight and wide and mid so that
13:08it helps in the edit as well.
13:11The other one is turned up as well.
13:13Okay, see for this I'm going to switch to wide.
13:20I guess there's a sort of a hierarchy between who's allowed to feed first.
13:33Okay, I'm going to carry on filming the Jackal for a while.
13:37Hopefully more will turn up and we'll get some interaction between them as well with any luck.
13:46So the two returned, the female and the younger one.
13:51And they were having a bit of a to and fro over the carcass.
13:58And now the third one has just turned up.
14:01And he's kicked them both off the carcass.
14:03Or she.
14:04I think they're all females actually.
14:19It seems there's no easy bits left on the carcass.
14:22It's all just really tough.
14:26Tough skin and bone.
14:28And having a real tug of war with it.
14:32Trying to get any morsel off it.
14:40And the other one's gone off into the distance there I can see.
14:49So I don't know, I've lost track of which one's which, but there's only one around now.
14:55It's still just the one.
14:58I think it's the younger one of the three.
15:03And she's really having to work for her meal.
15:11There's one tough enough love.
15:30Okay, the sun briefly disappeared behind the cloud and this looks like there's more clouds
15:35over there.
15:39So I'll probably stay out for another hour or so, but I don't want to drag this video out
15:44for you too long.
15:46So I'll wrap it up here.
15:48It's been a fantastic afternoon watching the jackals feed on the carcass of the water buffalo.
15:57And like I mentioned in the previous video, all of this is going to go back to making up
16:01a complete story on the jackals.
16:05But I'll try and put together a little sequence of what I filmed this afternoon and the photos
16:10as well at the end, which I hope you'll enjoy.
16:14So it just remains for me to say thank you so much for following along.
16:18Especially if you've lasted this long into the video, I really do appreciate it.
16:21And I hope you've enjoyed watching.
16:23So until next time, thanks again and bye for now.
16:31Bye.
17:03Bye.
17:09Bye.
17:22Bye.
17:24Bye.
17:25Bye.
17:27Bye.
17:29Bye.
17:30Bye.
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