Caracal

Caracal caracal

Based on new DNA work, Caracals were recently classified into the same lineage with the serval and the African golden cat [1].

Caracals are known (much like servals) for their ability to jump high and snatch birds out of flight as they try to escape. However caracals tend to go after larger prey species than the serval--often taking down animals 2-3 times their own weight [2].

Their facial markings and overall coloring are similar to the cougar's, but they have long tufts of hair on their eartips and their ears are larger in proportion to their heads than the cougar's. And, of course, they're smaller and native to a different part of the world than the cougar.

In some parts of the caracal's distribution range they are extinct or very near it, and in a few areas they're so numerous that they're hunted as problem animals. In most of their range they're rare. They seem to like the taste of small domestic livestock if it's available to them. They've been reported to kill more prey than what they apparently intend to eat [2].

For more information about the Caracal:

Feline Conservation Federation
Exoticcatz.com
Smithsonian National Zoological Park

[1] "The Evolution of Cats" (Stephen J. O'Brien and Warren E. Johnson) Scientific American July 2007
[2] Mel Sunquist and Fiona Sunquist. Wild Cats of the World University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2002, pp. 37-47