The Office
- Nikolina Konstantinova
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
This is where the preliminary part of the research is done: downloading, processing, and archiving the visual data
After the end of the field-season, the data will be carefully gone over again with the objective of revealing recurrent patterns of jackal behaviour. Still later, these patterns will be subjected to statistical analysis. Only then conclusions will be made aiming to describe general features of jackal behaviour.
A pattern suggesting itself at this very early stage seems to point in the direction of ‘caring’, confirming the validity of findings gathered at the previous location (Km 727). The adult jackal named Black Tail who had asserted himself as the ‘owner’ or ‘host’ of the bait-site can be seen taking food and leaving it aside, possibly for the use of a younger jackal (Dark Patch). In previous work my father called the taking of a slice of bread and carrying it to another jackal ‘slicing’. This behaviour has been observed at the new location.
Caring is a feature of altruistic behaviour in the sense of sharing food with another member of the family, or even of taking it to them. This is especially prominent during pup-rearing time. A family member – in the present case Black Tail – has been recorded twice although not yet fully confirmed. In general, a lot of the jackal’s remarkable resilience and expansion can be attributed to their ability to be altruistic and not selfish.
There are also signs of what my father calls ‘chaperoning’. This is when hierarchical ranking is being taught by keeping the subordinate from eating until the senior jackal has had his fill.
. Only then the subordinate is let eat ‘nose-to-nose’ with the chaperoning senior.
Chaperoning is a way of teaching younger jackals to be wary in all times but especially in vulnerable situations: when they are eating. When the senior jackal is keeper a younger one back it is not so much that the older jackals wants all the food to themselves, but that the younger should be kept at a distance from a potentially dangerous place until the senior is confident that a trap is not sprung under the food or a human with a gun is in the vicinity.
But these are very early steps made on the long road of confidently establishing behavioural patterns. For that to happen some very prosaic work has also to be done. This is to serve regularly bait at the bait-site. The time for that is around 18:00 hrs (DST, Sofia) every day for the duration of the field-study (usually seventy to a hundred days). The daily ration is of about 5 kg of food, or for the whole season 350-500 kg. How this amount of food for bait is procured is a sore topic for my father. Most people seem to think that waste-food is lying around in abundance, but that is hardly so. Waste bins of which the village boasts a dozen are sorry business when it comes to food.
My father asked friends in the village to collect organic rubbish for him but that was a failure. Organic waste was gathered indeed, but the jackals did not touch it, and what is more: even the stray dogs ignored. Possibly because it consisted of hardly anything else but vegetable peelings.
In view of these facts of life, something more appetizing had to be offered to the rather choosy customers but again: according to means. In the end, my father’s daily ration was pretty much the same as at the Km 727 camp. That was a kilogram of oatflakes soaked in water, leftovers from cooking, and a few slices of bread. The meat part is either fish from the river, or bones bought from meat-shops. Since there are no such shops in Vruv or the neighbouring villages, for bones one needs to go to Vidin. In the absence of bones, chicken carcasses can do, but they are also not easy to find.
The bones my father chops up with a hatchet to make their use easier for the jackals.
When chopped up this important item in the daily ration helps to increase the number of recordings as each piece is taken separately.
The other all-important issue is the provision of energy for charging all the batteries used: of the laptop, cell-phone, trap camera (8 rechargeable batteries), still camera, and, finally, head torch. Another consumer is the fridge where bones and fish, as well as other food is kept.
During daytime, the source of energy are the same solar panels which were used before.
The electricity from them is stored in batteries, from where an invertor provides 220 volt AC.
At night, the fridge runs on propane/butane.
When sunlight is insufficient, electricity comes from a 2 Kw electric generator.
This is a last resort option though and mercifully not often used. The noise of an electric generator running for hours is hard on the ears, especially when combined with the Romanian chalga pop music coming day and night from the other bank.
In the final account, the whole equipment with its many and not rarely troublesome components, serves to keep the bait-site going. A critical item in all this is, of course, the camera trap.
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