Caracal Cats 101 : Fun Facts & Myths

In today's video, we are going to talk about some interesting facts and myths about the Caracal Cat.

The caracal cat is one of Africa’s ultimate hunters, a stealthy cat with an exceptional ability to hunt out prey on the savanna.

The caracal is a graceful, slender, cat with a short, thick coat and characteristic long black-tufted ears. Its body color ranges from tawny-gray to reddish-brown, and sometimes entirely black “melanistic” animals may occur. They have distinctive narrow black stripes running from their eye to their nose and down the middle of their forehead, and their eyes are yellow-brown, with circular pupils instead of slits. The kittens feature reddish spots on their undersides, which adults do not have.

Here are some of the interesting facts about the Caracal Cat, which will give you some further insight into its characteristics and temperament.

1. Caracal's Meaning.

The name Caracal is derived from the Turkish word "karakulak" meaning "black ear." The Caracal was once trained for bird hunting in Iran and India. They were put into arenas containing a flock of pigeons, and wagers were made as to how many the cat would takedown. This is the origination of the expression "to put a cat amongst the pigeons." The Caracal is capable of leaping into the air and knocking down 10-12 birds at one time.

2. Caracal’s Closest Kin.

In terms of appearance, many similarities can be noted between the caracal and the common house cat. They both share a small, almost spherical head with tiny marble-like eyes. However, the caracal is more closely associated with and often mistaken for the serval.

Despite a near-identical body shape and structure, the visible differences between the serval and the caracal are actually quite striking. The caracal looks like a serval that hasn’t yet developed its black spots.

The easiest way to tell the two apart is by their ears. Servals don’t have the caracal cat’s distinctive ear tufts.

3. Caracal Cat's Size and Appearance.

Often referred to as the desert lynx, the Caracal does not actually possess the same physical attributes of members of the lynx family, such as the characteristic ruff of hair around the face. Instead, it has a short, dense coat, usually, a uniform tawny-brown to brick-red, and black melanistic individuals have been recorded. As the name implies, the backs of the ears are black and topped with long black tufts about 1.75 inches long. This tuft is the characteristic that Caracals do share with the members of the lynx family. It is the largest member of Africa's small cats, and it's most formidable. Males can weigh as much as 40 pounds, and females as much as 35. They stand between 16-20 inches at the shoulder and are 35-39 inches long.

4. Caracal Cat's Behavior.

Caracals are solitary animals. They maintain a territory which they will mark by leaving feces where they can be seen and spraying urine onto bushes.

Another method of communication is their vocalisations. These include the familiar purr of house cats along with mews, growls, hisses and a ‘wah-wah’ noise which they used to show they were uneasy.

This species shows no pattern for its activity being active both during the day and at night. On colder nights they tended to be active for long periods.

5. Caracal Cat's Distribution.

The caracal’s range is large, including a good part of Africa, to extend through the Arabian and Anatolian Peninsula, as well as southwestern and central Asia to Kazakhstan and central India. In Africa, the caracal is found everywhere except the central Sahara and the dense forest areas of equatorial West Africa. They occupy a range of habitats, being typically woodlands, scrub forest, and thickets, with rocky hills and plains also being common habitats, preferring edge habitats, particularly forest and grassland transitions.

6. Caracal Cat's Habits and Lifestyle.

Caracals are solitary animals, except during mating and the rearing of kittens. Males and females are both territorial and have an active home range. A male’s territory may overlap the range of several other males, but a female’s entire territory is for her individual use. Primarily nocturnal, sometimes caracals are seen during the day, particularly in undisturbed regions. Although terrestrial, they are skilled climbers as well, with tenacious attitudes. The time of hunting is usually regulated by prey activity, though caracals usually hunt at night. They have very good hearing and sight, and they communicate with a variety of growls, hisses, meows and spits.