Skip to content
Call Us: +256782105855 Email: info@gorillatrackings.com | sales@gorillatrackings.com
5 Fascinating Facts About The Caracal

5 Fascinating Facts About the Caracal

5 Fascinating Facts About the Caracal

A graceful, medium-sized feline, the caracal (Felis caracal) is found in open territory over much of Africa. Although smaller reserves in South Africa’s Cape and Karoo regions have a high reputation for sightings, this elusive and mostly nocturnal animal is rarely seen on safari.

Its reddish-brown coat, short tail, and tufted ears resembling a lynx make it a formidable predator. It can catch birds in flight thanks to its amazing leap made possible by its long back legs.

The phrase “put the cat among the pigeons” has its roots in the caracal. Trained caracals were let loose in arenas with pigeons in ancient India and Iran. The number of birds the cat would kill in a leap was then bet on.5 Fascinating Facts About the Caracal

Outside of Africa, caracals can be found in places as far east as Pakistan and western India, as well as the Arabian Peninsula.
Sometimes, like leopards, caracals are known to keep their kills in trees. Areas with a high hyena density are prone to have this tendency.

Despite being referred to as the African lynx at times because of its long hind legs, tufted ears, and short tail, the caracal is now believed to be more closely related to the serval (Leptailurus serval) and African golden cat (Caracal aurata) than to any other member of the lynx genus. Its taxonomy is still up for discussion.

Farmers severely persecute caracals because they can steal tiny, domestic animals. In the Karoo region of South Africa, control operations killed 2,219 caracals year on average between 1931 and 1952.