Outwitting the black-backed jackal
The black-backed jackal is alert, watching. Before researcher Geke Woudstra even spots the distinctive saddle of black and silver fur moving through the dunes, she can feel its eyes on her. The moment they lock gazes – or more likely, the moment the wind shifts and carries her scent – the game is over. In seconds, the jackal bolts, disappears over the dunes, and positions itself downwind. For the rest of the day, Geke won’t get close again. These animals are smart; always one step ahead. It’s this intelligence that makes them both a fascinating subject and a real challenge to study.
Tswalu’s conservation team sought to gain a deeper understanding of jackals and their role in the reserve’s predator-prey dynamics. While previous jackal research has focused primarily on farmlands, where they play a significant role in human-wildlife conflict, there has been little substantial work done on jackal diet in a protected reserve. The Tswalu Foundation identified this gap and consulted an expert on mesopredators to develop a research concept. That expert found a willing and passionate PhD candidate: Geke Woudstra from the University of South Africa (UNISA). Because jackals have such broad diets, knowing what they eat and when will provide actionable insights for informed, science-backed decisions about predator management and ecosystem health.
Geke arrived at Tswalu in November 2024 for her first visit to the reserve. After becoming familiar with the terrain and procedures, serious data collection commenced in January 2025. Her fieldwork will continue until at least March 2026, with analysis and writing to follow over the next 18 months. Geke is supervised by Haemish Melville and Kerry Slater from UNISA, along with advisory support from Tracey Kreplins, who works on similar research on dingoes for the Australian government.
The research focuses on understanding the ecological role of the black-backed jackal, particularly how its behaviour and diet are shaped by prey availability, and how, in turn, the jackal influences prey populations. As both predator and scavenger, the black-backed jackal occupies a key position in the Kalahari ecosystem. By hunting small mammals and young antelope while also consuming carrion, jackals help regulate prey numbers and contribute to nutrient cycling. The species itself is remarkable. Highly intelligent and adaptable, the black-backed jackal is known for problem-solving abilities and opportunistic behaviour. Agile and resourceful, it feeds on whatever is available, from small mammals and insects to carrion and fruit, showing remarkable flexibility in foraging strategies. Jackals are typically monogamous, with pairs cooperating closely to defend territories and raise their young. Their adaptability, social coordination, and sharp awareness make them one of the most resilient and successful medium-sized carnivores in southern Africa. The black-backed jackal is the only jackal species at Tswalu, as the habitat is not suitable for the side-striped jackal, which prefers areas with denser vegetation and higher rainfall.
To explore these dynamics, Geke has been working with 10 jackals as study animals. Because jackals have relatively high densities and spend most of their day above ground, they were fairly easy to locate, especially in the first two hours after sunrise when they’re still active in cooler temperatures. Each animal wears a GPS collar recording locations several times a day, allowing Geke to determine home range sizes and investigate movement patterns in detail.
Black-backed jackals form long-term pair bonds and cooperate to defend shared territories. Territory size and boundaries are influenced by prey availability, habitat quality, and neighbouring jackal pairs. Both members of a pair patrol and mark territorial boundaries through scent marking with their scats and vocalisations to deter intruders. Geke is particularly interested in extraterritorial forays – those occasions when individuals temporarily leave their territories – and what drives these movements: food availability, social interactions, or mating opportunities.
She also uses 50 camera traps spread randomly across the reserve on a grid system to explore whether jackals are more abundant in certain areas and why. Are they clustering where prey densities are high, or avoiding specific habitats?
The jackal’s diet component forms the largest part of the study. By understanding what they eat and how this changes over time, Geke can assess which prey species are most important to their survival and how their feeding choices influence prey populations. Diet analysis combines both traditional and modern techniques. Through visual inspection, she examines jackal scat contents under a microscope, identifying prey species by the unique structure of their hair. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding complements this work, extracting genetic material from the scat to identify prey species at a molecular level. This highly sensitive method can detect prey items that may not leave visible traces, such as small mammals, birds, or insects.
She has already observed a gradual dietary switch throughout the seasons: jackals mainly fed on seeds and berries during the hot-wet season, then switched to mammal species from the end of July into August at the start of the cold-dry season. This comes with a noticeable change in the smell of the scats. From a research perspective, this switch is fascinating, but it presents challenges during scat collection.
Because ecological conditions in the Kalahari shift dramatically with the seasons, the research is structured around three seasonal periods: hot-wet, cold-dry, and hot-dry. Each presents unique ecological opportunities. During the hot-wet season, most antelope species give birth, providing an abundance of vulnerable young. At the start of the cold-dry season, small mammal populations typically peak. In the hot-dry season, when resources are scarce, jackals are raising their pups and must adapt their foraging behaviour to meet higher energetic demands.
Finally, the research considers the reintroduction of larger predators at Tswalu, such as spotted hyenas, African wild dogs, and lions. These dominant competitors can kill or displace jackals, particularly at carcasses. Geke is testing whether jackals still display natural avoidance behaviour, especially since some individuals were established before these larger predators returned. This forms part of what ecologists refer to as the landscape of fear, which describes how mesopredators like jackals modify their movements and activity patterns to reduce the risk of encountering apex predators. Rather than directly killing jackals, these dominant species can shape how and where jackals move across the landscape, when they forage, and how they use resources.
Geke’s background is in forestry, elephants, and monkeys, but as an ecologist, it’s the interactions between multiple species that truly fascinate her. Although the jackal is the main focus, this research allows her to study many other animals, making every day in the field unique and endlessly rewarding. More importantly, it will provide Tswalu’s conservation team with the evidence-based insights they need to manage the reserve’s predator dynamics for years to come.
Images: Marcus Westberg and Chris Joubert
