Jackals may urinate on their favourite fruit to deter thieves

Black-backed jackals may urinate on sweet melons that grow in the Namib desert to stop other jackals pinching the fruit as it ripens.

The jackals, which are native to eastern and southern Africa, hunt small prey or scavenge on the carcasses left by larger predators, but they are also partial to fruit.

Jeremy Midgley at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and his colleagues set up camera traps to…