Jackals Dinner

While out in the Mara one afternoon my guide pointed out some vultures circling in the distance. They start this circling behaviour when they see a kill and hope to pick the bones when the predators have finished with it. I don't know how high these birds fly but when I first saw them, they looked like small specks highlighted against the blue sky. How they manage to spot a kill from this height is impressive, they must have some special kind of eyesight. It was not long before more and more vultures joined them, they come in real high then gradually get lower and lower until settling in a tree, near the kill, to wait.

We headed off towards them and sure enough found a pride of lions enjoying the remains of a buffalo. I knew it was a buffalo because of the distinctive curled horns. The vultures were not the only scavengers in the vicinity, there were a couple of hyenas and five jackals also eyeing up the food, obviously none were brave enough to get too close until the lions had had their fill and moved off.

The guide got a good position and parked up so we could see what would happen. When we arrived 15 lions were eating, as we waited one by one the lions, when full, moved off to lay in the shade and sleep off their large meal. It was down to the last two lions and the scavengers were still waiting patiently, but you could sense their increasing anticipation, as they slowly edged closer, with the vultures squabbling over bits of entrails and gristle that had been scattered on the ground away from the main carcass. Finally the last two lions finished. Before they had gone three feet the vultures were in, swarming all over the carcass so not even an inch of it could be seen, at least 50 of them all jostling for position.

The hyenas started to walk away; they had clearly decided that the rewards possibly wouldn't be worth the effort required in fighting off that many vultures. The jackals however had no such qualms and dived right into the melee. I was surprised to see that the vultures made space for them, in fact if any of them got too close the jackals would turn and snap at them, even jumping right up into the air as they flew just out of reach. More than once a jackal got a mouthful of feathers when a vulture didn't move quickly enough.

It was hard work for them, they must have been really hungry to stand their ground and fight off the huge numbers of vultures for such a small share of the food. After 10 minutes between them they had picked the carcass clean.