Caracal Cat with its long legs and tufted ears, looks like an African version of the lynx, and for many years this cat was known as the caracal lynx. However, in 2006, DNA studies found that caracals are much older than lynx—the Caracal lineage broke off from the ancestral felid line more than a million years before the true lynx appeared. Caracals, it turns out, are not lynx, but instead are more closely related to the serval and African golden cat. For several hundred years, caracals were used by the Indian nobility for sport hunting.
They were trained to hunt small game such as hares and partridge, and each cat was carried out to the hunt on a horse, sitting on a small quilted pad behind the rider. A painting from 1602 of King Solomon’s court shows a tame caracal sitting in front of the throne while two chukar partridges stand nearby; photographs taken as recently as the 1920s show tame caracals and cheetahs with their handlers, ready for the hunt. Caracals were still being sold in the marketplace in Amritsar until the 1940s.
Covering parts of both Africa and India, the historic range of the caracal mirrors that of the cheetah, and both coincide with the distribution of several small desert gazelles. In many parts of the caracal’s present range, these 30- to 65-pound (15 to 30 kg) gazelles have either disappeared or are under intense pressure. Though caracals seem to be able to survive on hares and hyrax-size prey, they are clearly “gazelle cats,” as the nomads of North Africa have always called them.
Cats are often said to have stern, aloof expressions or cruel, fierce eyes, and this description fits the caracal better than most felids. In strong light, the caracal’s upper eyelid seems to cover the top half of its eye, giving it a narrow-eyed appearance that could be anthropomorphically described as cruel. However, the lowered upper eyelid is probably a protective adaptation against the sun’s glare for this often diurnally active cat, rather than a reflection of the caracal’s fierce nature. When standing, a caracal appears taller at the rump than at the shoulders because its hind legs are somewhat longer than its forelegs. The powerfully built hindquarters enable this cat to make spectacular leaps, sprint short distances at high speed, and climb well.
Amazing leaper: Only a few cats use a high-flying leap to knock down birds in flight. Unless they are chasing butterflies or grasshoppers, cats rarely leap into the air; they prefer to keep their hind legs firmly planted on the ground. This gives them a stable footing if the prey proves difficult to handle.
The caracal cat is an exception. These cats are well known for the ability to jump—a tame caracal was lounging on the floor and, when startled, leaped 11 feet (3.4 m) into the air. This cat’s acrobatic abilities were recognized by Indian princes and potentates, who kept tame caracals for hunting. Tame caracals were pitted against one another in pigeon-catching contests, in which the cats were released into a flock of feeding pigeons while bets were made as to which one would bring down the largest number of birds.
A skillful caracal could knock down nearly a dozen birds before the remainder of the flock escaped. This contest was almost certainly where the expression “to put the cat among the pigeons” originated. Distribution of when it needs to. It is an adaptable predator that can survive on a surprising variety of birds, mammals, and reptiles. Caracals kill birds ranging in size from quail to ostrich and will feed on just about any mammal from mice to hares and antelope.
Most of their prey weighs less than 11 pounds (5 kg), but caracals are unusual among the small to medium-sized cats in that they can and do kill prey that is two to three times their own size. They have been known to kill large antelope, sheep, and goats, and in some areas, their appetite for domestic stock has resulted in them being regarded as a problem animal. In western India, where caracals are reported to be surviving on small rodents, these cats are clearly living on the edge.
Despite its adaptable feeding behavior, a cat this size is unlikely to be able to sustain itself on rats and mice unless they are superabundant. When rodents are not plentiful enough and gazelle-size natural prey have been eliminated, this large, powerful cat often turns to killing any available gazelle-size ungulate—sheep, goats, and other domestic stock—as they have in parts of the United Arab Emirates.
Caracals cats are in the strange position of being endangered in the Asian portion of their range while being hunted as a problem animal in Namibia and South Africa, where they can be killed without restriction. The caracal is quite common in Israel, considered to be rare but holding its own in Pakistan, and on the verge of extinction in India.
Status: IUCN Red List—Least Concern
Weight: 14–40 pounds (7–18 kg)
Head-body length: 24–46 inches (61–106 cm)
Tail length: 7.7–13 inches (19–34 cm)
Litter size: 1–6 kittens, but usually 2 kittens
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