Head to head
Caracal vs Serval
The caracal and the serval are both slender, long-legged African cats a little larger than a big house cat, they overlap across much of the savanna, and they are the two wild cats most often kept, and confused, in the exotic pet trade. Side by side they are not hard to tell apart. One is a compact, plain-coloured leaper built for snatching birds out of the air; the other is a tall, spotted, huge-eared specialist for catching rodents in long grass.
| Caracal | Serval | |
|---|---|---|
| Build | Stocky and muscular | Tall, lean, very long-legged |
| Ears | Pointed, with long black tufts | Very large and rounded, no tufts |
| Coat | Uniform reddish-tan, no markings | Golden with heavy black spots and stripes |
| Tail | Short | Short to medium, ringed near the tip |
| Signature move | A vertical leap to bat birds out of the air | A high, arcing pounce down onto hidden prey |
| Main prey | Birds, hyraxes, hares, small antelope | Rodents, plus birds, frogs, and insects |
| Range | Africa, the Middle East, and into India | Sub-Saharan Africa, tied to grassland and wetland |
| Hybrid breed | None in common breeding | The parent of the Savannah cat |
Caracal vs Serval: common questions
How do you tell a caracal from a serval?
Look at the coat and the ears. A serval is covered in bold black spots and bars on a pale gold background and has enormous rounded ears; a caracal is a plain, unmarked reddish-brown with narrower, pointed ears carrying long black tufts. Body shape helps too: the serval is strikingly tall and slim with disproportionately long legs and neck, while the caracal is a stockier, more heavily muscled cat. Both have short tails, which separates them from the spotted cats like the leopard and cheetah.
Are caracals and servals related?
They are both African members of the cat family and were once grouped together, but genetic studies place them in different lineages. The serval's closest relatives are the African golden cat and the caracal, so they are not distant, but the serval belongs to its own genus and the caracal to another that it shares with the African golden cat. Their similarities in size and habitat are partly shared ancestry and partly both being mid-sized cats filling similar roles in the same landscapes.
Do caracals or servals make good pets?
Neither is a good pet for almost anyone. Both are wild cats with powerful hunting instincts, a need for large secure outdoor space, specialised diets, strong scent-marking behaviour, and a bite and claws that can do serious harm. They bond with a keeper but do not become tame in the way a domestic cat is, and many end up surrendered to sanctuaries. Servals are the more commonly kept of the two and are the ancestor of the legal Savannah breed, which was developed specifically so people could have a serval-like pet without keeping an actual serval.