Demography and morphometry of an important mesopredator (black-backed jackal - Canis mesomelas) in southern Africa

Presented at the 9th international wildlife ranching symposium: wildlife - the key to prosperity for rural communities, held on 12-16 September 2016 at Hotel Safari & the Safari Court, Windhoek, Namibia.Predation losses on livestock and wildlife ranches are more than ZAR 2 thousand million per year. The black-backed jackal Canis mesomelas is an important mesopredator in South Africa and Namibia and implicated for much of these losses. Despite control over decades, little is known about their demography and morphometry. Information was collected by farmers and specialist predator hunters during a period of 21 months. Time of year hunted (age relative to whelping), eruption of the permanent teeth and the wear of incisors were used to categorise 4 age groups: