The serval is a rather unusual and stealthy cat. They also have a lot of nicknames like Tierboskat in Africaan which means the tiger forest cat and another is giraffe cat suggesting about their beautiful giraffe-like spots.
Size
It has very long legs compared to the rest of its body and grows up to 30cm long. Their overall height is around 54 to 62cm and length between 67-100cm so they are only a medium sized cat. Their weight varies a lot between male and female as males are 10-18kg whereas females are only 6-13kg. So males can be double the weight of females, if not triple.
Location
This species can only be found in Africa with most of it’s range covering Central, South and parts of the North. Many people would expect servals to live in an undisturbed, natural habitat but really the highest density of servals is in one of Africa’s largest coal liquefication plants. The main reason for this is because rats and mice thrive here with humans so they do well with the amount of prey that they have.
Population
The population of servals, like many other creatures, are declining. It is thought that around 50,000 mature individuals still roam the African savannah meaning that they are classed as least concern or stable.The main threats to these stunning cats are hunting, habitat degradation and other loss of natural ecosystems and prey.
Felidae Family Group
This characteristic cat is classed in the family Felidae (cat family). It shares it’s family with larger cats like Amur tigers, Lions and cheetahs but the group also consists of much smaller animals like rusty-spotted cats and the black-footed cat. Unlike domestic cats, all cats in this family love to swim and play in water which is the opposite to what most people think.
Diet
Servals have a very diverse diet hunting many species of rodent, birds,reptiles, frogs and insects. Most of their prey is caught by leaping into the air then pouncing straight down onto it. They are also very talented at using their long limbs to swipe creatures out of burrows of to snatch slippery fish out of the water.
Predators
As they are one of the smaller cats that hunt in the African Savannah that do consist in some other predators diet. Mostly it will be leopards that would take a serval but other carnivores have been known to as well like wild dogs and hyenas.In most of their range they will usually encounter caracals which is another medium sized cat that will take the serval’s prey.
Fun Facts
Did you know that a serval has a success rate of 50% for hunting, which is actually very good. Having longer legs is a great advantage when it comes to speed as they can run faster than a tiger.
