At the Zoo: Caracals, A Black-Eared Mystery
by Jennifer Winger

In abandoned porcupine burrows and rock crevices of dry country, a little-known carnivore hides by day and rises at night to pad about woodlands, savanna, and scrub forest in search of its prey. Also known as the desert lynx, but not a lynx at all, the caracal (Caracal caracal) is a wild cat about the size of a cocker spaniel dog.

Caracal
Caracals are incredibly agile and can snatch low-flying birds from the air. (Jessie Cohen/NZP)

Caracals inhabit semi-arid climates but rarely true deserts, and prefer open country to dense forests. In these habitats, caracals are widely distributed across Africa, Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East, southeastern and central India, and southwestern Asia.

Most caracals, including the Smithsonian National Zoo's pair, have short tawny or reddish-brown pelage. In the wild their coloration may disguise them as they stalk prey in sands and shrubs; however, caracals' fur color can vary from one region to the next, and even members of the same subspecies may look different. For example, the subspecies C. c. schmitzi lives in Israel and India, but the Israeli populations have markedly paler pelage than their Indian counterparts. And, due to melanism—a genetic variation that causes a high concentration of dark pigments in fur, hair, or feathers—caracals in one Iranian population are black except for the silvery hairs on the backs of their ears.

Caracals' common names reflect their wide range and their varied coloration. In Turkish they are called garahgulak, meaning "black-ear," for their black-backed and tufted ears; the English word "caracal" is likely a derivative of this word. In South Africa, the caracal is known as the rooikat, which means "red cat" in Afrikaans, because its coat takes on a rusty hue in that region. Other names include sieyh gush, which is Hindi and Persian, and ngam ouidenanga, which means "gazelle cat" in parts of Niger.

The caracal's face resembles that of a short-haired house cat with a touch of the exotic. Its eyes are rimmed with a thin line of black, like an ancient Egyptian queen wearing kohl, and two muted black lines run from the inside corners of its eyes down to its nose. But the caracal's most distinctive feature is its large, triangular ears, which are topped by tufts of black fur that can measure up to 1.75 inches long. A young caracal's ear tufts stand almost upright, but as the cat ages, its tufts gradually droop, and eventually they dangle down like tassels.

Several other cat species have ear tufts, including lynxes and jungle cats and, historically, caracals' taxonomy has been tangled up with theirs. Scientists initially placed caracals in the genus Lynx, believing them to be closely related to bobcats and other members of the group; later research suggested caracals were more closely related to housecats, so they became members of the genus Felis. Based on recent analyses of caracals' DNA and skull and dental measurements, they are now classified as the sole members of the genus Caracal, which has nine recognized subspecies, and their closest living relative is probably the African golden cat (Profelis aurata).

A Tale of Two Cats
Like all caracals, seven-year-old Martina and two-year-old Bob, the Zoo's female and male caracals, are solitary animals most of the time. They live in separate enclosures across from Think Tank, and can be seen lounging alone in their leafy green habitats or peeking out from between tall grasses. But in February 2005, for the first time, Zoo keepers brought Martina and Bob together when the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's Species Survival Plan for caracals recommended that the pair breed. According to Jeanne Minor, a great cat keeper at the Zoo, that's when things really got interesting.

Caracals can breed throughout the year, and females are typically fertile for a few days every two weeks. After Martina and Bob were moved to adjacent enclosures and grew acquainted with one another through a mesh screen, Zoo keepers watched Martina for signs that she was ready to mate. When she grew restless, vocalized a lot, and frequently marked the ground with her urine to let Bob know she was receptive, the cats were moved into the same enclosure. The pair engaged in a lot of tactile behavior, from roughhousing to snuggling, but did not produce a litter of kittens.

Minor suspects that in the beginning, the caracals failed to copulate because Bob was inexperienced. He made loud vocalizations, which sounded like emphatic meows, when he approached Martina. While these types of noises are not uncommon in caracals—they sometimes meow, gurgle, hiss, growl, spit, or purr—Minor says Bob's caterwauling turned Martina off. Since then, Bob has learned from his mistakes, and he may yet become a father.

Born to Hunt
Although caracals have a small frame—an adult weighs, on average, between 30 and 45 pounds—their anatomical design makes them ideal predators, and they can take down prey more than twice their own mass. They use their sharp canines to puncture the throats of their prey, and their powerful jaws ensure that their dinners do not escape. Once caracals' prey are dead, they use their carnassials—long, scissor-like molars common to all cats and many carnivorous mammals—to slice through tough tendons and hold slippery meat. Razor-sharp, curved claws also give them an advantage over their prey.

Caracal showing teeth
Caracals' canine teeth puncture prey. (Jessie Cohen/NZP)

Even more impressive than their killer claws and jaws, caracals' powerful hind legs are the finest tools in their anatomical arsenal. These muscular appendages are longer than caracals' front legs, giving their spine a curious sloped curve. But do not be deceived by caracals' awkward appearance: Their mismatched legs make them sprinters and high jumpers of Olympic proportions, with uncommon horizontal and vertical agility. With remarkable speed, caracals chase down swift animals such as gazelles and hares; from a standing start, they can leap six feet or more into the air to swat birds, and can even change course in midair. According to Minor, caracals' ability to hunt on the ground and in the air is unusual among cats. "These gorgeous and elegant cats are extremely fast with their paws," says Minor, "and they are amazing hunters." Legend has it that one famous caracal in Egypt could take down 15 birds before the rest of the flock could escape.

In the wild, where hunting skills are literally a matter of life and death, predators need both strength and stealth, and caracals have it all. They have the muscle, speed, and agility to overpower their prey, the eyesight and hearing to detect it, and the ability to stalk it unseen and unheard.

Caracals are nocturnal, so their eyes are designed to spot prey in low-light conditions. Like all cats, they have a membrane behind their retinas called a tapetum lucidum that improves their vision by increasing the amount of light reflected onto their retinas. Their pupils also grow larger and more circular at night, which allows more light to enter their eyes. This night vision gives them an edge when tracking prey under the cover of darkness.

To pick up the sounds of prey scurrying around in the dark, caracals use their distinctive ears. Twenty muscles control each large, funnel-shaped ear, while small hairs inside the ears may help caracals pinpoint the location of prey. No conclusive research has determined the purpose of the tufts of hair on the outside. Minor says the cats may be using these tufts as a form of intraspecies communication. "I would love to see more research on how these cats communicate with their ears," says Minor. "They are like lifeguards flapping flags to each other across the beach, but no one knows what they are saying."

Even the bottoms of caracals' paws assist them in their stealthy movements. Tiny hairs between the naked pads on the undersides of their feet deaden their footfalls, muffling the sound of rustling leaves or cracking sticks that would alert their quarry to their presence. Caracals can approach within 16 feet of an animal before ambushing it with a final burst of speed.

Caracals may be efficient killers, but they are not discriminating eaters. They consume a wide variety of birds, such as quail, guinea fowl, eagles, and ostriches, and mammals such as small rodents and hares. Although they most often prey on animals that weigh less than 11 pounds, caracals sometimes take down larger mammals such as antelopes and domestic sheep and goats if given the opportunity. Their diets also vary regionally: In South Africa's Mountain Zebra National Park, for example, caracals commonly feed on springbok, reedbuck, and antelope, but in Botswana, they consume gerbils, mice, and impalas. And in Israel caracals primarily feed on hares, chukar, and desert partridge, but supplement their diet with mole-rats, hedgehogs, and even Egyptian mongoose.

Surprisingly, these formidable hunters are also dainty eaters. They use tiny front teeth to pluck fur and feathers from their prey before they chow down, and are meticulously clean, indulging in frequent tongue baths.

Public Relations
The history of human-caracal interactions is a classic tale of a love-hate relationship. Although they are hardly known in North America outside of zoos and the exotic pet trade, caracals have fascinated people on other continents for hundreds of years. In the 19th century, explorer G.T. Vigne witnessed the extreme agility of caracals in his travels in Kashmir, and noted that the speed of the caracal seemed to exceed that of the gray fox and even the cheetah. Although even the swiftest caracal is no match for a cheetah, which can reach speeds of up to 65 miles per hour, Vigne's description reveals the near-mythical status caracals had reached in India at the time.

Impressed by caracals' hunting prowess, Iranian nobility tamed and trained them for generations; Indian princes and potentates kept tame caracals for hunting small game such as hares or for sporting events. Pigeon-catching contests were quite popular as well. The caracals were released into a flock of feeding pigeons, and bets were made as to which cat could knock down the most birds.

Back of caracal's black ears
Caracals may use their black ear tufts to communicate with one another. (Jessie Cohen/NZP)

In South Africa, caracals are the stuff of legends, but instead of admiration for these agile cats, the tales portray them as ignoble cowards. Author Nick Greaves documents two of these myths in his book, When Lion Could Fly and Other Tales From Africa. In "Lion and Caracal," a tale from the Batonka tribe, Caracal is a trickster who pulls the wool over Lion's eyes for a quick laugh, then lives in fear of his stronger cousin for the rest of his days. In "Caracal, Eland, and Jackal," a story passed down by the Bushmen people of the Kalahari, Caracal is similarly fainthearted. Eland, a large African antelope, takes advantage of Caracal's cowardly spirit and outwits him. Caracal's intellectual defeat leaves him quaking with fear and in awe of a beast that he could physically best.

Today, some people consider caracals to be worse than cowards. Although caracals are considered threatened in the Asian portion of their range, they are so abundant in South Africa and Namibia that they have become problematic for people in general and farmers in particular. According to Diane Versteeg, a studbook keeper and population manager for caracals at the Living Desert Zoo in Indian Wells, California, caracals sometimes prey on livestock and consequently suffer from a bad reputation. "In South Africa they look at caracals like we look at coyotes in this country," says Versteeg. Great cat keeper Jeanne Minor, agrees, but also points out that caracals get a bad rap simply because they behave like any other wild animal that hunts to survive. "In their native habitat they are thought of as vermin," says Minor, who notes that in parts of the caracal's range, lions also take livestock but enjoy a much more positive reputation among people. "With lions you can take advantage of tourist dollars, but caracals don't draw tourists, so they are thought of as a nuisance animal."

Can humans and caracals strike a balance between these positive and negative perceptions, and simply co-exist? According to Minor, education and conservation are the first steps. "These are unique cats, but not much is known about them," says Minor. "That needs to change, because we don't want them to disappear." Whether they are so abundant that they are reviled or so scarce that they are revered, these cats need to be to be protected. With ambassadors such as Martina and Bob, caracals may soon have their day in the sun.

—Jennifer Winger is a former ZooGoer intern and a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

ZooGoer 34(6) 2005. Copyright 2005 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.



Have a Comment?



You're responsible for the content of your post. Inappropriate material will be removed from the site.

Email addresses are not displayed anywhere on the site. They are used by ZooGoer staff to respond directly, when necessary, to those posting comments.


Page Controls