I agree with you, it's irritating to have to watch them from across the lake if you don't want to take the roadtrain. They are usually fairly active and even on a cold day last week they were both sat by the fence watching the train go by. In contrast to the hunting dogs which are usually out of sight, though i did see one of them from the train this visit too.
Indeed; when you consider that the hunting dogs have three paddocks (if my interpretation of the layout of that area is accurate) with two being visible from the public areas above, it would surely make most sense to remove the jackals from their enclosure, shuffle the hunting dogs along into the space so that one of their three paddocks is vacant, then put the jackals in that enclosure.
Considering the jackals at Colchester are active and curious, unlike the ageing and rather timid jackals at Hamerton, it is a real shame the collection does not make more of them.
