Quality and Quantity of the Scientific Information Available on Black-Backed Jackals and Caracals: Contributing to Human—Predator Conflict Management?

Abstract

Black-backed jackals, Canis mesomelas, and caracals, Caracal caracal, are meso-carnivores impacting the livestock and game farming (wildlife ranching) industries in southern Africa. Many efforts to manage the impact of these predators are unsuccessful and no meaningful, or effective, long-term management programme has been formulated over any large area (spanning more than a single farm or a group of neighbouring farms) throughout their southern African range. This paper reports on the scientific information available on the ecology of black-backed jackals and caracals to evaluate the nature of current knowledge of these species in order to prioritize research for the development of meaningful human—predator conflict management (HPCM) strategies. From a HPCM perspective, it is evident that published field studies on black-backed jackals and caracals in southern Africa are limited in scope, spatially and temporally isolated, and generally old (appearing prior to 2005). Most studies were also mainly conduct...