An incredible video captured the tense struggle between a jackal and a marabou in Pilanesburg National Park in Sᴏᴜᴛʜ Aғʀɪᴄᴀ. Dian Swanepoel, a 28-year-old civil engineer, saw the initial glimpse of the ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋ at Kubu Dam and recorded it on camera. Initially, the jackal was positioned flat on the ground, getting ready to ambush the wading bird. According to Swanepoel, the jackal started rushing for a marabou in the blink of an eye and went flat out to grasp it around the neck.
As he watched this all happen, he simultaneously felt horrified and amazed. He felt awful about the marabou, but a meal is a meal. The jackal played with the marabou and appeared to be really pleased with himself because his tail was wagging in all directions.
Given that the jackal is only around the size of a domestic dog, this was quite an astounding performance. The marabou, a stork family member, is a large bird with a 12-foot wingspan. These animals are incredibly enormous, weighing up to 20 pounds and standing nearly five feet tall.
With a fully bald head and neck, a black back, and a wʜɪᴛe chest and belly, the birds have a very distinctive appearance. A huge bill, a neck ruff, and a pink sac on its throat are also displayed. Due to their look when viewed from behind, marabou are frequently referred to as “undertaker birds.” The grim reaper comes to mind because of their cloak-like wings and back, narrow legs, and thick mass of hair.
Their long necks and bare heads are adaptations for scavenging on carrion; keeping a head covered with feathers clean while regularly inside a huge carcass is challenging. These birds will consume almost everything else in the absence of carcasses, including trash, human waste, animal waste, fish, frogs, tiny reptiles and mammals, insects, and birds.
source: dailylifeworld.com
