Tonny Sirma submitted this video to Latest Sightings. One of the species present reveals the location as East Africa.
Lucky jackal
As Tonny’s video begins, we see a black-backed jackal feeding on the carcass of a male Thomson’s gazelle. These antelopes are only found in East Africa.
At first, it appears that the jackal has the remains to itself. However, nearby, a hungry horde is gathering.
Dropping from the skies
On the open savannah, it doesn’t take long for news of a potential free meal to spread. Especially with hundreds of sharp-eyed vultures patrolling the clear blue skies.
As the jackal gulps down chunks of meat, a variety of vultures drop from the skies, hoping to get a share of the fresh meat.
Not the sharing kind
However, the jackal is in no mood to share its prize, even as the vultures begin to approach.
So much so that when the flock gets too close, the jackal launches itself at them, sending birds scattering in all directions.
Subsequently, the greedy scavenger returns to feed, its posture alert and aggressive in the face of the growing vulture presence.
Scavenging birds
As far as we can see, the birds present are all white-backed vultures. Despite being the most widespread vulture in Africa, they are critically endangered.
The arrival of a marabou stork spurs the jackal to launch another warning charge.
Here comes trouble
However, as it returns to feed, it doesn’t yet realise that another scavenger has seen the commotion and is running in to investigate.
Unlike the stork and vultures, the new arrival is fearsome, equipped with the most powerful jaws of any predator and quite capable of killing the jackal.
Spotted hyena
As it comes into view, we see that it is a spotted hyena. And, judging by its bold, no-nonsense approach, it means business.
As the birds again scatter, the jackal realises something is amiss and looks up to see the hyena barreling towards it.
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Wise decision
Quickly realising that it is outmuscled, the jackal immediately backs off. As the hyena arrives at the carcass, it barely acknowledges it, quickly seizing the carcass in its bone-crushing jaws.
Easily lifting the remains, the hyena doesn’t hang around. With the jackal looking on helplessly, it turns and lopes off to enjoy its stolen meal.
Its arrival and departure were so swift that vultures coming in to land arrived to find that the carcass was gone.
The African scavenger hierarchy
As shown in the video, a hierarchy exists among Africa’s scavengers. There are sub-hierarchies for birds and mammals.
Here we see that the jackal enjoys a higher rank than the vultures, while the hyena dominates all the other scavengers that arrive.
Among the vultures, the hierarchy is based on beak strength and size, with lappet-faced vultures usually dominating the ranks.
Together, these scavengers act as nature’s cleanup crew. By ridding the environment of decaying flesh, they limit the spread of diseases and toxins. Additionally, they are instrumental in recycling nutrients back into the earth, thereby enhancing ecosystem health.