Serval サーバル

The serval is a long-legged wild cat of the grasslands and wetlands of Africa, mainly south of the Sahara. Its legs and ears are large for its body size; it locates rodents hidden in the grass by sound and pounces on them. The Savannah breed was created by crossing servals with house cats. It is listed as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List.

It has a head-and-body length of 59–100 cm and weighs about 7–18 kg. Its legs are slender and long, with the hind legs longer than the front legs. The head is small, the large ears are set high and close together, and the backs of the ears are black with a white band. The coat is pale yellow to tawny with black spots that merge into stripes on the neck and shoulders. The tail is fairly short, with black rings and a black tip.

It is mainly active at dawn, dusk and night, though females are often active by day. Rodents make up 80–90% of its diet, and it also eats hares, birds, reptiles, frogs, fish and insects. When pouncing on prey it can leap 1–4 m horizontally and more than 1 m high, and adults can jump up to 3 m high from a standstill. Gestation lasts about 65–75 days, and litters are of 1–5 kittens (usually 2–4).

It is found in 34 African countries, mainly south of the Sahara, but not in rainforests or the Sahara itself. The 2017 classification tentatively recognizes three subspecies—L. s. serval in southern Africa, L. s. constantina in western and central Africa, and L. s. lipostictus in eastern Africa—though further research is needed on their boundaries.

It favours tall grassland, reed beds, wetlands and marshes, and is often found near water and along rivers.

The Savannah breed was created by crossing servals with house cats. The first kitten is said to have been born in 1986 to a male serval and a female house cat. TICA (The International Cat Association) accepted the breed for registration in 2001 and gave it championship status in 2012. The Serengeti, on the other hand, is a breed developed from Bengals and Oriental Shorthairs; it has no serval ancestry but was bred to look like a serval.

It is listed as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, and its population is considered stable. However, the North African population is small and of conservation concern. The main threats are wetland loss, grassland degradation, road traffic, and hunting for fur and persecution. It is listed in CITES Appendix II.

It was described in 1776 by the German naturalist Schreber. Its English name comes from the Portuguese lobo-cerval, meaning “lynx”. The genus Leptailurus contains only the serval, and genetic studies place it in the caracal lineage, close to the caracal and the African golden cat.