Watch the absolutely heart-stopping moment a wildebeest calf finds itself as a victim to 2 hungry jackals. But this didn’t go down without a fight from the calf’s mother!
On what seemed to be a very relaxed self-safari drive around Satara, personal trainer and beauty therapist Marcel and Jaime Letts discovered exactly how surprising life and survival in the wild can be.
“We were visiting the Kruger National Park and were doing what everyone does, looking for animals! We had stopped at Satara, one of the main rest camps, for a bathroom break and an ice cream. We drove out of the camp and saw 2 or 3 cars stationary on the side of the road. We stopped to see what these visitors were looking at and saw mommy wildebeest standing over her baby.”
“Initially, we did not see the jackal, but we quickly then realised that the mom was protecting her newborn from them because they were going for the calf!”
“It seemed like the jackal were planning their moves strategically because every time the mom would turn around to chase one jackal away, the other would sneak up from behind and take a bite at the calf. It was very heartbreaking and we tried to remain hopeful for the little one.”
“You can hear the exasperated reactions on the video, every time the baby got on its feet we were relieved at the thought that this might be the opportunity for it to actually get away but then we felt completely distraught when the jackal or the mom would bring it down again.”
“It was terribly sad when the mom kicked the baby down by accident but even more so when the mom threw the baby through the air with her horns in the end. After the last blow, we realized that it was more than likely over for the little calf and we couldn’t bear watching the sighting anymore. We drove away and I was in tears.”
“This was an extremely rare sighting for us. Even though it was emotional, I think it was probably an amazing opportunity to catch it on film too. You need to have a strong heart to watch this, even more so to see it happen right before your eyes and knowing that there is nothing you can do because this is the way of survival in the wild.”
“The only thing that helped was thinking that the jackal probably also had babies to feed. As we left, more cars arrived but the sighting spot wasn’t crowded and we had an unobstructed view the entire time. I wish we stayed a while longer to see how it ended, all I know is that this is a sighting I will never forget.”