Martial eagle catches a helmeted guineafowl but loses it to a black-backed jackal
During October, 2022, I was lucky enough to spend 4 days in Letaba Camp at Kruger National Park with a bunch of other birders as part of an event organised by the park’s Honorary Rangers. The birding was lead by Prof Derek Englebrecht from the University of Limpopo. On the first morning we were driving along the river, between the camp and the bridge. Most participants were building a bird list so all birds were of interest, but as I usually do, I was more on the lookout for interesting behaviours. And for sure interesting behaviours we got!
We came across a martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus) sitting at the top of a big apple-leaf tree (Philenoptera violacea) surveying the land on the other side of the road. Apple-leaf (appelblaar in Afrikaans, mphata in Sotho, mohata in Tsonga) is one of the most important large trees in this area, especially along the banks of watercourses.
The martial eagle is a large eagle with a relatively short tail that occurs throughout sub-Saharan Africa. It belongs to the booted eagle subfamily (Aquilinae), so it has feathers covering its legs. They spend a lot of time soaring, looking for prey, but also often hunt in a local area by watching from the top of a tree.
Apparently, at least one martial eagle is commonly seen in the area between Letaba camp and bridge, and it often goes after helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris). Helmeted guineafowl are preyed upon by a wide array of raptors and are always on the lookout for attack from above.
True to reported observations the bird suddenly took off, heading for the open area across the road. As it crossed the road it began a steep dive into a small patch of vegetation, where it grabbed a guineafowl too fast for us to process the details. In addition, it was hidden by the vegetation to a degree.
It spent nearly a minute tussling with its prey, accompanied by much movement of the eagle’s wings, and scattering guineafowl feathers. We were sure the eagle had a meal, but unexpectedly the guineafowl escaped, but was injured and clearly could not fly.
The eagle started to get airborne with its feet full of feathers, which is what I was concentrated on, but suddenly someone shouted “jackals”. Two black-backed jackals (Lupulella mesomelas) suddenly appeared and one of them grabbed the wounded bird before the eagle could recover it.
The martial eagle landed on top of a dead bush, and watched the jackals make off with its food.
Eventually, it decided not to try to recover its prey, and went back to the top of the apple leaf tree to look for another opportunity. At that point we drove off, and did not see if it caught another guineafowl or other prey later.
