2011-08-30 – Masai Mara G.R.

A truly rarely seen and extraordinary interaction this morning, under a clear sunny sky in Mara. We looked for the Caracals and found them about a mile away from where we left them last night. When we did found them along a gulley, it was clear that they had a kill, a Hare, and that a pair of Jackals had just stolen it from them. The mother Caracal attacked the Jackals, ears flattened, bare teeth, paws up in the air. She was really fierce and despite being much smaller than the Jackals she put up a real fight a couple of times, and charged at them repeatedly until the Jackals ran away with their food and she couldn’t do anything but accept defeat and retreat to the bushes. Meanwhile the cubs watched from a distance what was going on, and only rejoined mum when she called them out. We lost her in a rocky patch of bushes for the whole rest of the day. My guest Andrew Melhuish took some amazing images of the fight, as we had just positioned, one of which is included here.