Serval

Tierboskat · Leptailurus serval

A tall, leggy cat with huge satellite-dish ears and a golden coat dotted with bold black spots and bars. The serval is built for hunting in long grass, using its incredible hearing to pinpoint rodents before leaping high and pouncing straight down on them. With the longest legs relative to body size of any cat, it looks like a small cheetah on stilts.

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How to identify it

Very long legs and oversized ears on a spotted, slender cat — much smaller and longer-limbed than a cheetah.

Look for its tracks

Cat print with no claws, but longer and slimmer-toed than most; medium — smaller than a leopard's.

Where to see it in Kruger

Rare; favours tall grassland near water, and is most active at dawn, dusk, and night.

Did you know

It can leap over a metre straight up to snatch birds right out of the air.

Often confused with

Caracal

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