The African serval is a
small, slender cat with long legs, a lean body, and a small head. Its
extra-long neck gives it the nickname "giraffe cat." The cat's coat
is brown with black lines and spots while its belly is a soft white. Native to
the grasslands of Africa , the serval's colors
allow it to seemingly disappear in the thick grass. Unlike many other cat
species, this small feline loves to climb, leap, and play in water. It
vocalizes using shrill cries and mews, but the serval can growl and purr, too.
Servals are crepuscular to avoid the heat of the day, although they also hunt
at night when needed. The cats often share their savanna habitat with caracals
and may compete with them for prey.
Wait and see is the
serval's main hunting strategy. It waits
in the tall grass, using its huge ears to listen for approaching prey before
pouncing on its meal. Instead of running down a target like a cheetah would, the
serval takes a giant leap up into the air and then forces its body weight down
upon the victim, trapping it beneath the front paws until the cat can deliver a
deadly bite to the neck. This method is efficient and quick.
The serval has a varied
diet, eating birds, reptiles, frogs, and large insects. Standing on its hind legs, a serval can jump
more than 9 feet (2.7 meters) straight up to grab birds right out of the air!
But small rodents are its most frequent prey item, and servals don't hesitate to
reach a long leg down into a rodent's burrow to snatch a meal out of the
tunnel! With its many hunting styles, varied diet, and fantastic hearing, the
serval is well equipped to be the most successful predator of all the cats.
Servals do not have a
specific breeding season, and even though a male's home range may overlap those
of several females, they live separately most of the year. Males may sometimes rest together during the
day in small groups, but otherwise they are solitary.
The female serval raises
her kittens alone, usually three kittens to a litter. They live in a den made
of tall, thick grass, and the mother leaves her kittens most of the day while
she hunts for food, returning to stay with them at night. She accepts the presence of her female
kittens longer than that of male kittens: once the boys can hunt for themselves
they are no longer welcome at home.
Daughters usually stay with their mother until they are about two years
old. In the wild, female servals in overlapping ranges are often related to one
another.
Staying wild
Some people think it would
be fun to own a wild or exotic cat. This has led to a serval cross-breed cat
called the "savanna cat": a captive-raised serval bred with a
domestic cat. Wild animals, even those born
in zoos, keep their wild instincts for hundreds, even thousands, of years. It
took thousands of years to domesticate "tame" dogs, cats, sheep, and
cattle by selective breeding for certain traits. Special permits are required
for trained experts or zoos to own or house wild servals, and it is against the
law in some states to own savanna cats.
Servals in the wild are
not considered endangered except for one subspecies, the North African serval
Leptailurus serval constantinus. However, like all wild animals, serval
populations can be harmed by habitat loss, global climate change, and hunting
for their beautiful fur. It takes the skins of many servals to produce one
coat. Fortunately, in many parts of the world the wearing of animal-skin coats
for fashion is no longer popular.
Servals are important to
their human neighbors because they catch rodents, which carry diseases and
contaminate food supplies. With fewer than 300 servals in zoos around the world
and less than 150 in United
States
Facts about Serval
• The serval has the
longest legs and largest ears for its body size of any cat.
• Ancient Egyptians
worshipped the serval for its power and grace.
• Servals are perhaps the
best hunters in the cat world. While other wild cats are successful in just one
of every five or six attempts to kill prey, servals make a kill in about half
of all tries.
• The name serval comes
from a Portuguese word meaning "wolf deer."
• Other nicknames for the
serval are "bush cat" and "giraffe cat
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