THE BLACK-BACKED JACKAL 
comfortable bed in his home, with the knowledge that 
a policeman was on the beat outside to guard him 
from harm. I obtained little or no sleep that night, 
for, whenever a jackal cried out, an owl hooted, a 
wild cat screamed, or the Bush Babies rustled the 
branches overhead, he would start up with an ex- 
clamation of alarm and grab hold of me. However, 
after a few weeks he grew so used to the strange and 
weird noises of the veld and forest by night, that 
he slept peacefully. 
When brought to bay, the jackal utters what Mr. 
Cloete describes as a quacking or cackling noise. 
When desiring to attract the attention of the 
puppies, it gives. vent to a low grunting kind of 
sound, or perhaps better described as a series of 
low muffled barks. 
Jackals usually associate in pairs. Often a mother 
jackal may be observed hunting with her last litter 
of puppies, which she is teaching to hunt. At such 
times they are particularly bold’ and destructive. 
A farmer relates an instance of a mother jackal and 
five half-grown pups killing fifty out of seventy-five 
valuable Angora kids in a single night. Only one 
or two were eaten. The rest were killed, and 
left upon the veld. On another occasion eleven 
goat kids were killed within a few hundred yards 
of the kraal, by a single jackal. None of the 
bodies were touched, the jackal having evidently 
become alarmed. One carcase was poisoned with 
strychnine, and the following night the jackal 
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