Servals
COMMON NAME: Servals
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Leptailurus serval
TYPE: Mammals
DIET: Carnivore: rodents, birds, reptiles, frogs, and insects
GROUP NAME: Pack
YOUNG NAME: Kittens
AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IN THE WILD: 10 to 12 years
AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IN CAPTIVITY: 20 years
HEAD/BODY LENGTH: 23 to 36 inches
TAIL LENGTH: 8 to 15 inches
WEIGHT: 20 to 40 pounds
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1. Servals sit patiently, swiveling their heads back and forth, scanning the savanna for a meal not with its eyes, but with its oversize ears.
2. Thanks to its extra-long legs, stretched-out neck, and huge ears, the serval is sometimes called the “cat of spare parts.” (If a person had ears like a serval’s, they’d be as big as dinner plates!)
3. Servals are really successful hunters. They catch their prey in over half of their attempts, making them one of the best hunters in the wild cat kingdom. That’s about 20 percent better than lions hunting together in a pride. Our servals here in North Carolina like chickens, whole, not nuggets.
4. Hunting in North Carolina is a popular and economically significant recreational activity. Hunters often wear camoflauge garments. Servals rely on their coat for camouflage as they stalk prey and avoid predators in their original hunting grounds of northwest and sub-Saharan Africa. No wonder our servals here in North Carolina are so comfortable in their adopted home.
5. Cats like cheetahs sport spots and tigers wear stripes. Servals have spots, of which some blend together to give them the appearance of stripes. This makes it tough to spot a serval in high grass when it’s standing still.
6. No two serval coats are the same.
7. Servals that live near woodlands have more dots that are small than those cats that spend time on the savanna. Scientists think the smaller spots might hide those cats better among the shade of trees. However, white spots behind an adults’ ears are supposed to be seen—they help cubs keep track of Mom when she’s leading them during a hunt.
8. Servals mostly hunt rodents—on average, one serval eats 4,000 a year—but they’re not picky eaters like some other wild cats. They’ll eat anything small enough for them to catch, including grasshoppers, snakes, and even birds as large as storks and guinea fowls. They’ll occasionally wade into water to gobble up frogs and other amphibians. A serval can catch up to 30 frogs in three hours while hunting in water.
9. Also, unlike most other wild cats, they almost never scavenge, or eat other animals’ leftovers. Scientists think this is because they’re already such successful hunters.
10. All cats have great reflexes, but servals have the fastest paw strikes of all at 1/60 of a second. That is faster than a king cobra can strike.