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Jackals, Golden Wolves, and Honey Badgers

Cunning, Courage, and Conflict with Humans

Keith Somerville author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:9th Oct '24

£39.99

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Jackals, Golden Wolves, and Honey Badgers cover

This book explores the fascinating and complex lives of the honey badger, the African jackals (black-backed and side-striped), African golden wolves, and Eurasian golden jackals. In recent years, interest in these creatures has grown exponentially, through wildlife documentaries and media clips showing the aggressive, fearless, and tenacious behaviour of the honey badger, with jackals often presented in a supporting role.

Written by renowned journalist and educator Keith Somerville, this accessible volume includes historical narratives, folklore, and contemporary accounts of human–wildlife relationships and conflicts. It traces the evolution of the species; their foraging and diet; the development of their relationships with humans; and their commensal, kleptocratic, and symbiotic relationships with other carnivores, raptors and birds. It also charts the recent expansion in European jackal numbers and ranges, now including as far west as the Netherlands and as far north as Finland.

Blending historical observations by non-scientists, colonial officials, administrators, and early conservationists with contemporary scientific accounts, it presents a new multidisciplinary approach that will interest researchers, scientists, and students in wildlife conservation, human–wildlife relations, zoology, biology, and environmental science.

"This book has benefited from more colour from Somerville’s extensive on-the-ground reporting, including his first-hand observations of the interactions of jackals and honey badgers in Botswana — observations that lead to this work, which stands as a definitive account of these often misunderstood and persecuted creatures."

Ed Stoddard, in an excerpt from a review in Daily Maverick, South Africa.

ISBN: 9781032059075

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 521g

266 pages