10 FUN FACTS ABOUT SERVALS
Get ready to meet one of the most fascinating and beautiful wild cats found across Africa - the serval! With their striking coats, long legs, and piercing eyes, servals are a sight to behold. But beyond their stunning appearance, these African wild cats are full of surprises. In this blog post, we'll uncover 10 fun facts that will leave you purr-fectly amazed and eager to learn more about these incredible animals.
Hi, I’m a serval! Photo credit. Martin Harvey/Wild Screen Exchange.
1. A single serval catches up to 4000 rodents a year
Mice and rats are the serval’s favorite snacks! These smart predators rely heavily on their hearing and height advantage in the tall grass to hunt rodents efficiently. They have the highest hunting success rate compared to other species of cat, catching 2 out of 3 hunts with an average of 15 catches a day. Servals sit at their tall vantage point while pinpointing faint rodent sounds as they get ready to pounce. They also use their sharp, hooked claws to dig into underground burrows and into water to catch fish and frogs. They are mainly nocturnal hunters active during twilight hours to avoid the daytime heat.
Rodents make up most of their diet, but being carnivorous, servals are opportunistic eaters, taking almost any food that comes their way. While 93.5% of their diet is their made up of their favorite small mammal snacks (rats, mice, and shrews), they also eat hyraxes, hares, birds, reptiles, insects, fish, and frogs. They consume smaller prey whole, while they remove feathers, hooves, feet, and beaks from larger prey before eating.
They also have to avoid becoming the next meal of a predator, which could be hyenas, wild dogs, leopards, lions, Nile crocodiles, and martial eagles. Servals will seek protection by finding tall trees and often jumping in the water, to avoid becoming their next meal.
2. Servals can jump up to 10 feet in the air
Servals are remarkable when it comes to the power of their legs. They have the longest legs relative to their body size among any wild cat. This gives them a unique advantage allowing them to jump straight up to about 10 feet into the air and leap over 13 feet in a singular jump. These cats can also run at speeds up to 50 miles per hour making them fantastic hunters and help them stay away from predators.
3. If humans had the same sized ears as servals, ours would be dinner plate sized
One of the most fascinating features of servals is their ears. These cats have the largest ears of any cat, each containing 22 muscles. Their ears can rotate up to 180 degrees independently of one another, allowing them to pinpoint the slightest noises made by prey, even if it's underground. Combined with their long, powerful legs, these ears make servals one of the most successful hunters in the wild cat kingdom. Combined with their long, powerful legs, these ears make servals highly effective hunters.
4.Servals are socially awkward
Servals are solitary animals with little social interaction outside of the breeding season. Occasionally they form temporary partnerships, teaming up for hunting or to defend against larger predators. The only long-lasting bond is between a mother and her cubs, which usually lasts around a year before the grown cubs venture out on their own.
Besides their family behavior, servals have a diverse range of vocalizations. They can purr, meow, hiss, and grunt. They also mark their territory by spraying urine using their scent glands.
5. Servals like water
Unlike the domestic kitties we are familiar with at home, these wild cats have an unusual affinity to water. They are excellent swimmers and their coats are water-repellent, helping them to shake off water easily. They often lie in shallow water to hide from predators and to stalk prey.
Within South Africa, servals are found in moist savannah habitats, wetlands and tall grasslands. The main threat facing servals is the loss of wetlands, a habitat that’s particularly likely to host their favourite food - rodents.
6. Servals have spots and fake stripes
Servals are known for their sleek, tan-colored fur with distinctive black spots and stripes. However, there are also very rare black and white variants of this species. Unlike tigers with bold stripes and cheetahs with clearly defined spots, servals have a unique blend of both patterns. While they don't have true stripes, some of their spots are close together they create a striped effect. Each serval's coat pattern is unique and aids them in blending in with the grasslands.
7. Servals kittens have baby teeth
Birth takes place in a secluded and secure area with dense vegetation. After a gestation period of 70 to 79 days, a female serval typically gives birth to a litter of one to four kittens.The mother frequently moves the kittens' hiding place for safety. Newborns are born blind, and eyes tend to open between 9 to 13 days after birth. Kittens start to wean around a month old, with the mother bringing kills to them, doubling her hunting efforts.
Serval kittens have baby teeth, and can’t hunt for themselves until they reach approximately 6 months old wfhen they develop their permanent canine teeth. The mother then chases away the male kittens as soon as they can hunt (8-10 months old) but the female offspring stays longer up to a year. Young servals reach maturity at between 18 to 24 months (about 2 years).
8. Servals are highly adaptable
Servals are highly adaptable, especially given the threat of habitat loss. The destruction of African wetlands and grasslands means servals must find new places to inhabit. Their adaptability seems more tolerant of disrupted terrain than other mammal species that prey on a variety of animals.
Servals are also hunted for their skin and fur coats. In South Africa their parts are are used for ceremonial and medicinal purposes. They are also targeted for attacking livestock and poultry, which is why they are rarely found in densely populated areas. Out of 19 subspecies, only one, located in North Africa, is endangered. They are a protected species in South Africa.
9. Nicknamed the “Giraffe cat”
Due to the servals long legs and neck, servals have earned the nickname “giraffe cat. These features allow them to see over tall grass, much like a giraffe. They are also called ‘tierboskat’ in Afrikaans, which means ‘tiger bush cat’ due to their tiger-like spots and stripe patterns.
10. Male servals have cat fights
Despite being solitary animals and avoiding each other as much as possible, on occasions where two adult servals meet in conflict over territory, male servals engage in “ritualistic aggression”. They sit in front of each other, with one male placing its paw on the other's chest while the other bites it. This behavior can result in a real fight but usually ends at this act. When a real fight does occur, the servals flatten their ears, arch their backs, show their teeth, and lash out with their front legs while growling. These aggressive encounters are rare, as servals work to avoid one another rather than fight and defend their ranges.
References:
South African Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) Serval Factsheet. https://www.sanbi.org/animal-of-the-week/serval/
Thiel, C. 2019. Leptailurus serval (amended version of 2015 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T11638A156536762. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T11638A156536762.en. Accessed on 20 June 2024.
African Serval Cat Information and Facts ~ Cats for Africa. (2024, February 19). Cats for Africa. https://www.catsforafrica.co.za/serval-leptailurus-serval/
Serval. Africa Geographic. (2021, May 26). https://africageographic.com/stories/serval/
Serval. (n.d.). Animals. National Geographic Kids. https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/serval