Dietary response of black-backed jackals (<em>Lupulella mesomelas</em>) to contrasted land use

This dataset contains prey species detections derived from DNA metabarcoding of black-backed jackal (Lupulella mesomelas) scats collected across three land-use types in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The data provide species-level dietary occurrence information and associated sample metadata for use in studies of trophic ecology, dietary niche breadth, and predator–prey interactions. Raw sequence data were processed through a standardized bioinformatics pipeline, and the resulting operational taxonomic unit (OTU) table was taxonomically assigned and curated to produce the final dataset. To account for variation in sequencing depth among samples, detections are provided as presence–absence records at the species level. This data was used to investigate patterns of resource use across landscapes, compare dietary composition among sites and seasons, and support meta-analyses of carnivore diet based on metabarcoding approaches.