Serval

Description

Its length is approximately 85 cm, and that of its tail of about 40 cm. Its weight is from 9 to 18 kg. It has long legs and a slim head; its ears are at the same time long and broad in comparison with its head, and have the characteristic to be round in their end. The aspect of its Fourrure is variable: although the majority of the servals raise multiple points or spots to the manner of the leopard S, some have as apparent marks only some spots above the eyes and the rings around the tail. There exist also entirely black servals. (see black Panther).

Biotope

This cat serval, enough commun run in Africa, lives mainly in the wet Savane S. As the servals need river in their territory, one does not find them in the half-deserts or the arid Steppe S. The serval is able to climb and swim, but it seldom does it.

Food

The serval is carnivorous, it nourishes others Mammifère S such as the Rongeur S, the Lièvre S, the daman S, small the Antilope S, and of Oiseau X.

After having located its prey, in general in the twilight, and often thanks to its hearing, the serval leaps aves dexterity. It makes some four meters length jumps, and more than one meter in height before striking its victim with its legs of front. It nourishes rats, rodents, birds, fish and large insects. The serval of the wetlands is fond of delicacies frogs.

Reproduction

At twice a year, and following one period of gestation of ten week, the female low puts a range of two or three small. They are high in places sheltered like the abandoned dens of ground pigs (Oryctérope S). If such an ideal place cannot be found, a space between shrubs or a nest of grass can prove to be sufficient.

Predatory

The servals are sometimes the prey of the leopards. But the man is much more dangerous for him. The servals were driven out much for their Fourrure. One can still find them in Africa Is and of the West, but they disappeared from the Cape Province in South Africa and are increasingly rare in the north of the the Sahara.

Subspecies

Leptailurus serval serval , the Cape Province (extinct)
Leptailurus serval beirae , Mozambique
Leptailurus serval will brachyura , West Africa, the Sahel, Ethiopia
Leptailurus serval constantina , Algérie (threatened, if not already disappeared species)
Leptailurus serval hamiltoni , Transvaal of the east
Leptailurus serval hindeio , Tanzania
Leptailurus serval ingridi , Namibia, Botswana of south, Zimbabwe
Leptailurus serval kempi , Uganda
Leptailurus serval kivuensis , DRC
Leptailurus serval liposticta , north of the Angola
Leptailurus serval lonnbergi , south of Angola
Leptailurus serval mababiensis , northern Botswana
Leptailurus serval robertsi , western Transvaal
Leptailurus serval togoensis , Togo, Benign

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