40 Fun Facts About Caracal

In old Indian arena contests, people bet on which caracal could kill the most of which birds?

Pigeons were released in flocks for the contest, and the betting is said to have given English the idiom about putting the cat among the pigeons.

Gosha, a pet caracal whose owner posted him on Instagram, became which hugely popular internet meme?

Big Floppa is the meme name of Gosha, short for Gregory, and fans now use Floppa for pictures of any caracal.

Caracals near Simon's Town, South Africa, caused about a tenth of deaths in a colony of which seabirds?

Penguins at the Simon's Town breeding colony are African penguins, and caracals were blamed for about 11% of their deaths between 1999 and 2021.

San Diego Zoo says a caracal can even leap onto which bird as it sits?

An ostrich is far bigger than the usual menu, though caracals do occasionally kill mammals as large as an impala or a young kudu.

The South African Air Force is reported to have trained caracals to keep flocks of birds away from what?

Runways kept clear of flocks mean fewer bird strikes, which can badly damage aircraft.

Which ancient civilisation painted caracals and cast them as bronze figurines?

Egypt also embalmed caracals, and sculptures of the cat are thought to have guarded the tombs of pharaohs.

Powerful hind legs let a caracal leap roughly how high to swat a flying bird out of the air?

3 metres is about 10 feet, and a caracal can even twist and change direction in mid-air.

The name caracal comes from words meaning black ear in which language?

Turkish speakers called the cat karakulak, a nod to ears that are black on the back and tipped with long black tufts.

Caracats are bred by crossing a caracal with a domestic cat, most often of which breed?

Abyssinian crosses carry a risk: caracat kittens can arrive premature or oversized, because a caracal's pregnancy lasts about 15 days longer than a house cat's.

The Airbus H225M carries the name Caracal and is which kind of military aircraft?

Helicopter crews use the Caracal for troop transport and combat search and rescue; it was developed from the Cougar, a helicopter named after another cat.

Indian rulers once hunted small game with caracals and larger game with which other trained cat?

Cheetah and caracal ranges once mirrored each other across Asia and Africa, and both cats were taught to stalk and catch game for people.

Besides desert lynx, the caracal's other nickname pairs lynx with the name of which pet cat breed?

Persian lynx is a misleading label: caracals are only distantly related to the true lynxes, despite the matching ear tufts.

South Africans often call the caracal a rooikat, an Afrikaans name with which literal meaning?

Red cat fits the caracal's reddish-tan coat, and South Africa's army borrowed Rooikat as the name of an armoured vehicle.

Which furry cliff-dwelling mammal, a distant relative of the elephant, do caracals often hunt in South Africa?

Hyrax, known in South Africa as the dassie, is a staple of the caracal's diet, along with hares, rodents and small antelope.

Caracal mothers often den in burrows abandoned by which African digger, whose Afrikaans name means earth pig?

Aardvark burrows make ready-made nurseries, and porcupine holes serve too; the kittens are born tiny and helpless, with their eyes sealed shut.

Which long-legged spotted cat shares the caracal's lineage but hunts in wetter habitats?

Serval and caracal are similar in size, but the serval lacks ear tufts and leaves smaller footprints.

Because caracals range widely across more than 50 countries, which status do they hold on the IUCN Red List?

Least Concern hides local trouble: caracals are thought to be close to extinction in North Africa and are critically endangered in Pakistan.

Caracals are shot as pests in southern Africa mainly because they sometimes kill which farm animals?

Sheep and goats are easy targets when wild prey runs short, and control measures in South Africa's Karoo killed over 2,000 caracals a year from 1931 to 1952.

In dry country a caracal can go without drinking by getting the moisture it needs from what?

Its food supplies the moisture a caracal needs, yet waterholes still matter because other animals gather there to drink.

Usually silent caracals growl and hiss when upset, but which sound do they make when content?

Purr like a pet cat is just what a happy caracal does, though an uneasy one makes an odd wah-wah sound instead.

Secretive and hard to observe, caracals do most of their hunting at which time?

At night is the rule: a South African study found caracals most active once the air drops below 20 °C, though in Yemen's Hawf Protected Area they were active mainly by day.

A caracal suffocates large prey such as an antelope by clamping its jaws on which part of the body?

Throat bites are saved for big animals; smaller prey is killed with a bite to the back of the neck.

Stiff hairs between the pads of a caracal's paws are an adaptation for travelling over what?

Sand suits a cat nicknamed the desert lynx, yet caracals are missing from the open deserts of Namibia and the central Sahara.

Like a human fingerprint, which feature of a caracal's face is attached in a pattern unique to each cat?

Whiskers grow from black-marked pads on the caracal's face, and the same one-of-a-kind patterning is true of all cats.

Scratching a tree lets a caracal leave scent from glands on its face and between which body parts?

Toes carry the glands, so one scratching session leaves both a visible mark and a smell that may warn other caracals away or invite a mate.

Which rainforest-dwelling species is the caracal's closest living relative and shares the genus Caracal?

African golden cat and caracal look alike, but the golden cat has shorter untufted ears, a longer tail and a rounder face.

Scientists place the caracal in which family, alongside lions, tigers and ordinary house cats?

Felidae contains eight genetic lineages, and the caracal's own lineage arose about 8.5 million years ago.

The Urban Caracal Project, based at a local university, studies wild caracals around which South African city?

Cape Town is home to the project, whose most-sighted caracal, Hermes, was recognised by his pale ear tags.

The Toubou people near Lake Chad named the caracal after which desert antelope it is reputed to hunt?

Gazelle cat is the Toubou name, and the caracal's historical range matches that of several small desert gazelles.

A caracal's upper eyelids sit low, making its eyes look half shut, probably to shield them from what?

The sun's glare is the likely reason, and bold black and white markings around the eyes and mouth complete the caracal's striking face.

India's few remaining caracals live in reserves such as Ranthambhore and Sariska, both in which desert state?

Rajasthan shares India's last caracals with Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, and the whole Indian population may number under 100.

Caracals have been recorded nearly two miles above sea level in the highlands of which Horn of Africa country?

Ethiopia is also where caracals are seen along roads in the Degua Tembien massif, sometimes as roadkill.

A 2019 camera trap in Jebel Hafeet National Park recorded which emirate's first caracal since the 1980s?

Abu Dhabi had gone without a confirmed caracal for about 35 years before the male was photographed near Al Ain.

Which English electronic duo followed their debut Settle with a 2015 album named Caracal?

Disclosure earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album with Caracal, whose guests included Sam Smith, Lorde and The Weeknd.

A house cat that entered a male caracal's enclosure in 1998 produced hybrid kittens at which city's zoo?

Moscow Zoo's accident was the first recorded cross between a caracal and a domestic cat, and deliberate breeding programmes followed in later years.

Which French naturalist, the count behind the vast Histoire Naturelle, proposed the name caracal in 1761?

Georges Buffon suggested the name fifteen years before the species received its first scientific description, from a skin collected in southern Africa.

Rulers of which Mongol-led Chinese dynasty paid gold, silver and silk to Muslim merchants for caracals?

Yuan rulers bought the cats in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the Ming dynasty that followed kept up the practice.

Asian caracals sit on the strictest list, Appendix I, of which treaty governing international wildlife trade?

CITES places African caracals on the looser Appendix II, which allows trade under permits.

The first digit of a caracal's front leg stays raised above the ground and carries which feature?

Dewclaw is the term, and the caracal's large paws carry five digits on each front leg but only four on each hind leg.

Young caracals have shorter ear tufts than adults and eyes tinted which colour?

Blue fades with age: adult caracal eyes range from golden or copper to green or grey.