Caracal (The Fastest of The Smaller Wild Cats)
The caracal (Caracal caracal) is a medium-sized wild cat native to Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and arid areas of Pakistan and northwestern India.
Caracals live in diverse habitats. They can be found in woodlands, scrub forests, plains, rocky hills, and thickets. They prefer edge habitats, like a transition of a forest/grassland. Caracals can be found at elevations over 3000 meters in the Ethiopian mountains of Ethiopia in Africa. They prefer an arid climate with minimal foliage. In the Asian regions, they are found in forests and seldom live in tropical or desert environments.
The name 'caracal' was termed after the Turkish word 'Karrah-kulak', which means 'black ear'. The function of these ear tufts is still a mystery, but often zookeepers have noticed them communicating with their ear tufts. Like other cats, the caracal meows, growls, hisses, spits, and purr.
The caracal is a slender, moderately sized cat characterized by a robust build, a short face, long canine teeth, tufted ears, and long legs. The coat is uniformly reddish tan or sandy, though black caracals are also known. , while the ventral parts are lighter with small reddish markings. The underbelly and the insides of the legs are lighter, often with small reddish markings. The fur, soft, short, and dense, grows coarser in the summer. It reaches 40–50 cm at the shoulder and weighs 8–19 kg. The caracal is sexually dimorphic; the females are smaller than the males in most bodily parameters.
The closest relative to the Caracal cat is the Serval. They are of the same size but live in different habitats. Servals like humid weather, whereas Caracals live in dry, desert environments. Caracals, sometimes called desert lynx, are not members of the lynx family though many people confuse them with lynx because of their ear tufts.
They are opportunistic hunters and hunt whatever they find, from small animals like mongooses to large animals like deers, sprinting after mongooses, rodents, hyraxes, dik-diks, and monkeys. Occasionally, caracals kill mammals as large as an impala or young kudu and may attack domestic livestock.
The Caracals are known for being the fastest of the smaller wild cats and are extremely powerful hunters. It can run at speeds of up to 50mph. Its speed and agility make it an efficient hunter, able to take down prey two to three times its size. and with footpads cushioned by stiff fur, they make practically no noise as they sprint toward targets. Tufts of hair on the tips of a caracal’s ears may enhance their hearing, making it easier for the cat to listen for prey. The powerful hind legs allow it to leap more than 3 m in the air to catch birds on the wing. It can even twist and change its direction mid-air.
It stalks its prey until it is within 5 m, following which it can launch into a sprint. While large prey such as antelopes is suffocated by a throat bite, smaller prey is killed by a bite on the back of the neck. It often has to compete with foxes, wolves, leopards, and hyaenas for prey.
Caracals are generally solitary, patrolling, and aggressively defending their territory. Most caracals come together only to mate. Females advertise their readiness to mate with urine marking, and responding males will fight for access. Pregnancy lasts up to about 2.5 months, and mothers typically use abandoned porcupine burrows and rock crevices for maternal dens. Litters average around three kittens, with six being the maximum. Kittens are born blind and deaf. Their eyes will open at about 10 days old, around the same time their incisors first become visible. Females raise the kittens without help from the males, nursing the kittens for four to six months, though kittens can eat meat by the time they’re a month old. By this time, they can scamper about and follow their mother to learn hunting skills and how to fend for themselves. By nine or 10 months old, kittens are ready to leave their mothers. Both sexes become sexually mature by the time they are one year old and breed throughout the year. In the wild, these cats have a lifespan of 10-12 years. Whereas in captivity, with a good diet and care, they can live for as long as 20 years.
The caracal appears to have been religiously significant in the ancient Egyptian culture, as it occurs in paintings and as bronze figurines; sculptures are thought to have guarded the tombs of pharaohs. Embalmed caracals have also been discovered.
The caracal is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2002, as it is widely distributed in over 50 range countries, where the threats to caracal populations vary in extent. Habitat loss due to agricultural expansion, the building of roads and settlements is a major threat in all range countries. Local people kill caracals to protect livestock, or in retaliation for its preying on small livestock. Additionally, it is threatened by hunting for the pet trade.
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