Jackal Narratives: Predator Control and Contested Ecologies in the Karoo, South Africa

This article considers the historical roots of, and scientific evidence for, rival ‘jackal narratives’ about the ecology and control of the black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) in the Karoo, South Africa. During the mid 20th century, state-supported co-operative hunting and jackal-proof fences largely contained jackal predation. But as South Africa moved towards democracy in the 1990s, in a context of falling on-farm employment and the ending of subsidised fences and state-supported predator control, jackal predation re-emerged as a problem for economically and politically marginalised commercial sheep farmers in the Karoo. When CapeNature (the government body responsible for maintaining biodiversity on agricultural lands in the Western Cape province) sought to restrict the trapping and shooting of predators by farmers, an emotive battle with political ramifications erupted over the science of predator ecology. A rival ‘citizen science’ from farmers and hunters emerged to challenge the dominant ‘environmental jackal narrative’, which blamed hunting for the increase in jackals. We argue that the environmental jackal narrative was supported by the science of predator ecology (showing that predator numbers can increase as a result of persecution), but that the linked policy recommendation that farmers learn to ‘live with the jackal’ occupied less solid scientific and historical grounds. The rival ‘farmer jackal narrative’, which sought to justify the lethal control of jackals, resonated not only with farmers’ historical experience but also with some emerging conservation theories and practices regarding the culling of jackals in national parks.