Beach Jackals

Media Type:Video
Genre(s):Documentary
Animals
UPC:818506027687
Producer(s):Bertrand Loyer
Director(s):Bertrand Loyer
Actor(s):James Faulkner
Run Time:45 Minutes

Video

They form hunting parties of four to ten, usually in the late morning hours, with each jackal having a specific role. Once the prey is subdued, the incredible mobbing takes place: simultaneously, up to seventy individual jackals surge forward. This triggers a feeding frenzy and makes the original hunters unable to protect their prey. Despite this strategy, a hunt is successful only 13% of the time, indicating just how hard it is to be a Black-backed jackal on the Skeleton Coast. Through the eyes of researchers Ingrid Viesel and Eric Murray, this film explores all aspects of jackals’ lives: their dens behind the dunes, their litter, heir division of labor, their social interaction and communications. By following two different packs, this story delves into the complex dynamics of the individual jackals as they continually struggle for position and dominance. By revealing the seal-mobbing new behavior and the reasons behind it, this film solves the riddle of a collective switch from scavenging to hunting and documents its social consequences.