If you’ve ever visited a conservation center, you may have met a serval or two. They are one of the most sought-after illegal pets. By looking around their enclosure, you can see these cats have different requirements than a house cat and would not be overjoyed to be locked indoors all day, or really, for their entire lives. Servals are every bit as socially awkward as your housecat, except this kitty catches over 4,000 rodents annually.
What is a Serval?
Servals are medium-sized wildcats native to South Africa. Their beauty is so haunting that it will stop you in your tracks. However, don’t be fooled by their gorgeous looks. These cats are wild and need plenty of space to roam. They are high-energy and have different requirements than regular house cats, and they can be as costly as a new luxury car.
Though it requires a special permit to own any large cats legally, no permit is needed with servals. Savannah cats are created by crossing a domesticated house cat with a serval. There are different standards for savannah cats bred with servals because those kittens will be the closest to a wild serval that you can legally get.
Scientific Name: Leptailurus serval
Class: Mammalia
Domain: Eukaryota
Appearance
Servals are unique-looking creatures. They have the largest ears of any wild cat. Their ears are not pointed like a typical cat’s; instead, they are long but rounded. They look somewhat similar to cheetahs with their black spots and yellowish fur. They also have dark areas around their eyes, as if they have dark tear stains. The coloring of the cat’s fur helps them blend in with the savannah background when hunting.
Size
19 – 40 pounds and 23 inches long, not including tail.
Habitat
The serval lives predominantly in South Africa, though it can be found anywhere except Central Equatorial Africa. Servals live their entire lives in wide open grassy stretches of savannah. Within the savannah, they can be found in wetlands, bamboo thickets, and high-altitude moorlands.
The southernmost point of the continent is not inhabited by servals, nor is the Sahara Desert. The cats stick to the semi-arid savannah, where birds and rodents are plentiful because there is a source of water.
Diet
It’s a bit funny, but servals really love eating locusts. They would be delighted if you offered them a bowl filled with locusts! They eat other creatures found in the grassy desert area, too. Where there is water, tons of animals that need it to survive will hang out around it. The serval’s typical diet consists of rodents like swamp rats, grass mice, multimammate mice, golden moles, shrews,
Servals will not eat carrion. They are royalty and refuse to stoop as low as to scavenge for food scraps left by a larger animal.
Reproduction
Servals typically have either two or four kittens in each litter. The mother serval raises kittens alone since servals prefer to live solitary lives. Throughout the day, the mother serval slips out to hunt while the kittens sleep. Like a human single mother, servals have a tremendous job to do in a short amount of time. Her kittens will always be hungry or need their mother somehow, so she will need to go quickly whenever she sneaks off to hunt.
Servals make good mothers and will typically periodically move their kittens to new hiding spots in case predators have been thinking about coming a little too close.
Lifespan
Like a domesticated cat, it can live up to 23 years, though most will not survive past 10 years in the wild. In captivity, servals could live to 23 years old. The average house cat lives to be 12.
Can You Have a Serval as a Pet?
Servals can legally be pets in most states, but should they be? In 2022, the Big Cat Public Safety Act was passed, prohibiting anyone in the United States from owning a lion, tiger, or other large cat. Unfortunately, the serval was not covered in the Act. In North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Nevada, Wisconsin, Texas, and Delaware, it is 100% legal to own a serval, which is still 100% a wild animal, no matter where you put it.
The ethical question of whether servals should be kept as pets is easy if you respect nature. Servals can be kept in apartment buildings, with other pets and even children, but it is not likely that a properly educated human would want to live in a house with a 40-pound wild animal. Unfortunately, with the rich, there is no limit to what they are willing to pay for in terms of their wants.
The First Savannah Kitten
On April 7th, 1986, in Pennsylvania, a half-domesticated short-haired seal point Siamese cat and an African serval welcomed their kitten, later named “Miracle,” to the world. The cats were both staying with Judee Frank, while the serval’s owner, Suzi Wood, went through a divorce. Frank was a Bengal cat breeder, and it is possible that she and Wood were discussing breeding Wood’s male serval, Ernie, to Frank’s female, and that Wood would be allowed to keep one kitten from the pairing. Ernie had other plans!
Servals were bred with domesticated short-haired cats to cater to a broader group and create a more manageable hybrid. Please check out our other articles on servals and which of the different grades of Savannah cat is closest to being a serval versus which is the furthest. Servals are simply amazing animals, and being in the presence of one is breathtaking. Savannah cats are every bit as amazing, just with a side of domesticated cat attitude.
