A JACKALS VULNERABLE SIDE!

You may say, “Does he have any”? You bet he does!!!!!

Here is a thought to ponder over, one you may know, and may not! If you don’t well, think about your say last 40 hunts maybe this fact stuck out BUT you failed to connect the dots so to speak!

Well, SIGHT, a jackal’s weak side for sure, I have proven it many times and also it has been noted in books written from a long time back, it is not really a new discovery.

A jackal and a cat are totally opposite regarding these two things, a jackal can smell really well, but his eyesight isn’t hot at all, but the cat, well his sight is amazingly good but his ability to wind you when you are calling is zero, not good at all.

These factors I have proven over and over again, I went calling once when I first learnt about a cat and his inability to wind you, we called and the wind was going behind us, in came a lynx and the wind quite noticeable went straight into his face! He came on in and at about 30m we sent him on his way upwards. I called another lynx, came in straight into the wind and we shot him at 28m, I have that on DVD! And can prove it if anybody thinks it a crazy story. I hunted with Sean one night, along a sand road came another cat, into the wind and Sean shot him with my 222 in the head at 60m. We called two others at dusk, also into the wind, all called with my hand call, all made a mistake, But maybe not a mistake to them, maybe they know they cant smell a human or something strangely similar.

Cats can detect a movement quickly but their peripheral vision isn’t good, so if you have to move wait till he is at your side, then he wont see the movement. 

TAKE NOTE OF THIS POINT!!!

This is another mistake callers make, they sit high in a swivel chair awaiting nightfall, and turn in circles looking around, a predator can see that movement for miles away from you, and you will never see him, PLUS remember he is looking UPWARDS at you, so he can see you easily because of the angle, even if its not at an angle and he is far away, he will still see you turning and making a movement from far away, NEVER do this, wait till nightfall then climb into your chair!

ALSO REMEMBER, if a jackal smells you and runs like hell, REMEMBER it is 99% of the time that he did not smell you directly, but smelt maybe the bakkies diesel, or your equipment or something, it does not mean he smelt you as a human – he could have smelt something else that he did not like at all.

Buck have fantastic peripheral vision, just look at his head from the side, see how far his eyes stick out of his head, very far, but cats have bad peripheral vision. What is the animal with the BEST sight vision day and night from basically any direction? GUESS, see if you know, this animal can see you from just about any direction you approach from, side back front or whatever, they have fantastic sight and peripheral vision. See the end of the article for the answer.

Getting back to SIGHT - well I remember one night also with Sean, we called and went out on a full moon, it was overcast but the moon was full, we set up with a mountain to our back, and in front of us an open expanse of Karoo, and we could see very far. I played a social sound, it was February, and after about 5 minutes a pair of jackal barked back, and ran in, at 26/27 metres paced out they stopped dead, they looked straight at us, we had a camo bakkie with camo net over it, BUT it was full moon, we had 4 people at the back of it also, the bakkie threw a long shadow on the ground and when we stood up you could see our shadows clearly, it was like day, BUT they stood and looked at us, NO they were not young but had good colouration and I estimated them at about 5 years old.

BUT as to a jackal’s bad eyesight in the day, I don’t know who knows?

I have a wonderful book in my library, called KAROO written in about 1929 by a person called LAWRENCE G GREEN, here is a sentence on page 165 of his book, the chapter is called MORE OUTLAWS – the others being lion, baboon etc.

He writes “it has large ears, a slender muzzle and a most acute sense of smell, if it had to rely on its eyesight to outwit others the entire species would have been dead long ago”

So, as far back as 1929 this is noted, I personally have proven this many times, last week my partner was calling, used night vision, and the jackal came past the bakkie at 30m and went towards the Foxpro about 40m in front of him, he never even knew that he had passed my partner.

Maybe the jackal is an elephant in disguise? As both of them have poor eyesight (little humour) so what can we say to prove this wrong? How about you, have you also noted that a jackal is bad at night with vision?

Here is another scenario.

I hunted 3 months back in Danielskuil near Kuruman, it was dusk, we could still just see, I placed the Foxpro in the road and while I was sitting on the bakkie waiting for darkness to start calling, I saw two jackal trotting past us at about 25m at the very most, they were a pair, and never saw us, we had camo net over the truck, But still they were that close but never saw us, we shot both of them. We called and shot another jackal, he was about 35m from us, stood and barked in our direction after I challenged on the Foxpro, he looked straight at us, never knew a thing at all till he was dead.

So, it’s pretty straight forward, jackal smell good and see bad, cats see good and smell bad! ( to wind us).

I hunt on top of windmills often, and till today I have never called a jackal that has seen me or looked up skywards, it has turned out to be a good hunting tip. See my site under PREDATOR CALLING INFO for WINDMILL HUNTING.

1929 Edition.  The answer to the question is a HORSE.