Jackal and Vulture face off by Johann and Lizet Grobbelaar

Husband and wife team Lizet and Johann Grobbelaar recently photographed a dispute between a Jackal and a Vulture at Giant’s Castle Nature Reserve in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa.

I’ve seen photographs of exchanges between scavengers before, but not quite like this!

Jackal approaches Vulture by Johann and Lizet Grobbelaar

Johann Grobbelaar described the experience:

Interaction between jackals and the vultures have been witnessed by others but this was a first for us. We were anticipating that something was going to happen so the adrenalin was pumping.

It all started when the jackal appeared over the ridge. The vulture immediately noticed it and seemed irritated and not intimidated at all.

There was a small piece of meat to the right of the bird and it stood its ground. The jackal would slowly approach and then back off again repeatedly with the vulture just standing still.

Okay, this is definitely my favorite photo of the series! Wow!

Vulture pecks Jackal's nose by Johann and Lizet Grobbelaar

Johann continues:

Then, after about 10 minutes of this, the jackal decided it was then or never and approached right up to the bird. It lunged toward the vulture but the the bird replied by zapping it on the nose. The jackal immediately backed off. He tried again a little later but this time it gave up much sooner without any physical contact.

It was very exciting. We were very surprised to see that the vulture actually got hold of the jackal’s nose.

Ouch! Looks like the Jackal did not like being pecked on the nose!

Jackal has enough of the Vulture by Johann and Lizet Grobbelaar

Judging from these photos, Johann and Lizet make a great team! Johann says:

Lizet and I met in 1995 through a mutual interest in birds. Both of us have had a keen interest in natural history and especially birds since early childhood.

Together we have traveled extensively throughout southern Africa in pursuit of birds, and having seen most of our resident species, we now concentrate more on photography, especially trying to photograph the more elusive or rare species. Our main aim is target specific expeditions to attempt to document species for which we are not aware of any previously published photographs.

How awesome, traveling the world together, taking photos of birds! See their Published “Firsts” and the rest of their photos at Johann Grobbelaar: Birds and Nature Photography.