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Black-backed jackals ( Canis mesomelas  Schreber, 1775) are one of the most commonly implicated conflict animals on farming areas in southern Africa. To determine the diet of black-backed jackals, and to understand their possible predation effects on domestic livestock, a study was conducted using faecal analyses in the Nottingham Road/Mooi River agricultural areas, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We collected and analysed 154 scat samples from two seasons (summer and winter). Jackals consumed 17–19 taxa per season, including a number of rodents and shrews, domestic and wild ungulates, birds, insects, reptiles, and grass. Rodents were the most consumed prey item seasonally (relative percentage of occurrence: 54–56.3%), indicating that they were the main food source of black-backed jackals. Another important food source was domestic livestock comprising between 19.7% (winter) and 16.3% (summer) seasonally. Black-backed jackals consumed a wide range of prey categories during both seasons; however, we recorded a slightly broader prey diversity during the summer period. A large spectrum of prey species in the diet of jackal confirmed the opportunistic and generalist nature of the species. Domestic stock constituted an important food source in the diet of black-backed jackal in this modified agricultural landscape. Therefore, appropriate management measures are needed to avoid growing human-wildlife conflict in agricultural farmlands.

Diet of black-backed jackals ( Canis mesomelas ) on farmlands in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, South Africa