Furry Bundles of Cuteness
Every evening we head off for a walk with our dogs.
Depending on the time of the year, we either walk along the game paths in the bush, or we stick to the roads.
This was that time of the year I suppose you would refer to as spring, but there had not yet been any rain, so the vegetation was not very thick and the game paths through the bush were still easily walkable.
Bearing in mind, that winter in the lowveld can really hardly be referred to as winter for probably 95% of the time, so the transfer into spring is not very marked.
This particular evening we were walking along the same paths we’d been walking along for a number of weeks already, when all of a sudden Lorenz just stopped.
“Jackal babies” he said very quietly but with excitement.
“Where?”
He pointed.
And true as bob, there was a tiny little head poking up out of an abandoned aardvark burrow.
As we stood there, super excited, I hardly dared breath.
As we watched, another little head appeared and there were two!
They were still very little and as both pups popped out the den, the braver little puppy was definitely very curious to investigate what these very strange creatures were which had appeared right on their doorstep – 2 x odd 2-legged creatures, and 4 x 4-legged creatures, very similar looking to them. Our dogs were on their leads (they are not allowed off them in the reserve, quite obviously), and this little baby had no fear of anything, still learning what’s what in the big wide bush.
The other one was not quite as brave and hung back a bit. The brave one came quite close, while we stood dead still. It didn’t seem to mind the curious whining of the dogs. Until all of a sudden there was that moment of “oooh, hang on a second, maybe this is not the best plan” and both ran back to the safety of home.
We could not believe our luck that we had jackal pups on our property. You honestly never know what you will find on a day.
We were very careful to not go walking there every day from then on, as we didn’t want to disturb them too much.
But of course we did have to follow the progress of our new babies, and I did have to get some pictures of them with my camera rather than cellphone footage.
And so a few days later we headed back, me armed with my camera and tripod.
While these 2 were getting on with the business of chewing roots and sticks and being oh so very cute, we noticed movement in the den.
Again, we couldn’t believe our luck, because lo and behold, a 3rd baby popped out.
And then, you won’t believe me when I tell you an extra pair of ears made their debut, and there was indeed a 4th pup!
Baby jackals are very cute to watch. They are super busy, and in my opinion behave just like puppies.
They play with each other, then all of sudden get bored and move on to play with whatever else is closest – a stick, a twig, the next puppy which comes along…
Very short attention spans.
Mom and dad seemed to be out most evenings when we went past.
One evening while the puppies were very busy providing great entertainment, we heard a strange growling sound. Not very loud and not very close, but we realised that mom was nearby and was not very happy with us. We assured her that her little family was very safe with us, but we then moved on so as not to stress her.
After a week or so (could have been a bit longer) we noticed that the jackals had moved next door. They were now living in a larger series of dens, which is a bit more sheltered. We have also seen aardvark and porcupine here previously.
We decided this would be a good place to set up the camera trap to get more of an indepth view into their behaviour.
The footage from the camera trap was just incredible to watch.
I wish I could have shared all the footage, but here are a few snippets from our hidden view into their lives.
Some sessions were more successful than others. Our camera trap strap did suffer some damage as one (or maybe more) of the pups thought it was a great teething object and chewed right through it. They also knocked the camera off centre, so we got some lovely footage of the soil at the entrance to the burrow!
Is this the pup who chewed the strap? …
We discovered that being a jackal mom and feeding the puppies is quite a violent exercise – or so it appeared. 6 (yes, we eventually counted 6 pups) needing to be fed in one go …
After we managed to capture quite a number of lovely interactions on the camera trap, the jackals had expanded their play area and could now also be seen in another adjacent burrow, back out in the open, and so we weren’t capturing quite as much footage in one place.
And soon after this we did not really see them as much anymore.
It was such a privilege to be able to share in the lives of this little jackal family, even if only for a few weeks. So special to know that they are so close to your home as well, and you are all sharing the same beautiful place in the bush.
We still see the jackals and they are obviously young adults now.
