Caracal
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40 free Caracal trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The caracal is one of the most athletic wild cats on Earth: a sleek, long-legged hunter with tall black ear tufts and a jump that has to be seen to be believed. It is secretive and seldom spotted, yet it has lived alongside people for thousands of years, as a hunting partner, a farm pest and, lately, an internet star. This quiz turns fun facts about caracals into multiple-choice questions, each with a short explanation. It covers what caracals look like, how they hunt, where they live, how they raise their kittens, the animals they are related to and the surprising places their name has turned up. It is written for curious readers of any age: kids working on an animal report, teachers and quiz hosts who need accurate questions, and anyone who simply likes cats. The opening questions are the easiest, and the later ones go deeper.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In old Indian arena contests, people bet on which caracal could kill the most of which birds?
Pigeons
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.
Q 02Gosha, a pet caracal whose owner posted him on Instagram, became which hugely popular internet meme?
Big Floppa
Big Floppa is the meme name of Gosha, short for Gregory, and fans now use Floppa for pictures of any caracal.
Q 03Caracals near Simon's Town, South Africa, caused about a tenth of deaths in a colony of which seabirds?
Penguins
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.
Q 04San Diego Zoo says a caracal can even leap onto which bird as it sits?
Ostrich
An ostrich is far bigger than the usual menu, though caracals do occasionally kill mammals as large as an impala or a young kudu.
Q 05The South African Air Force is reported to have trained caracals to keep flocks of birds away from what?
Runways
Runways kept clear of flocks mean fewer bird strikes, which can badly damage aircraft.
Q 06Which ancient civilisation painted caracals and cast them as bronze figurines?
Egypt
Egypt also embalmed caracals, and sculptures of the cat are thought to have guarded the tombs of pharaohs.
Q 07Powerful hind legs let a caracal leap roughly how high to swat a flying bird out of the air?
3 metres
3 metres is about 10 feet, and a caracal can even twist and change direction in mid-air.
Q 08The name caracal comes from words meaning black ear in which language?
Turkish
Turkish speakers called the cat karakulak, a nod to ears that are black on the back and tipped with long black tufts.
Q 09Caracats are bred by crossing a caracal with a domestic cat, most often of which breed?
Abyssinian
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.
Q 10The Airbus H225M carries the name Caracal and is which kind of military aircraft?
Helicopter
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.
Q 11Indian rulers once hunted small game with caracals and larger game with which other trained cat?
Cheetah
Cheetah and caracal ranges once mirrored each other across Asia and Africa, and both cats were taught to stalk and catch game for people.
Q 12Besides desert lynx, the caracal's other nickname pairs lynx with the name of which pet cat breed?
Persian
Persian lynx is a misleading label: caracals are only distantly related to the true lynxes, despite the matching ear tufts.
Q 13South Africans often call the caracal a rooikat, an Afrikaans name with which literal meaning?
Red cat
Red cat fits the caracal's reddish-tan coat, and South Africa's army borrowed Rooikat as the name of an armoured vehicle.
Q 21Secretive and hard to observe, caracals do most of their hunting at which time?
At night
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.
Q 22A caracal suffocates large prey such as an antelope by clamping its jaws on which part of the body?
Throat
Throat bites are saved for big animals; smaller prey is killed with a bite to the back of the neck.
Q 23Stiff hairs between the pads of a caracal's paws are an adaptation for travelling over what?
Sand
Sand suits a cat nicknamed the desert lynx, yet caracals are missing from the open deserts of Namibia and the central Sahara.
Q 14Which furry cliff-dwelling mammal, a distant relative of the elephant, do caracals often hunt in South Africa?
Hyrax
Hyrax, known in South Africa as the dassie, is a staple of the caracal's diet, along with hares, rodents and small antelope.
Q 15Caracal mothers often den in burrows abandoned by which African digger, whose Afrikaans name means earth pig?
Aardvark
Aardvark burrows make ready-made nurseries, and porcupine holes serve too; the kittens are born tiny and helpless, with their eyes sealed shut.
Q 16Which long-legged spotted cat shares the caracal's lineage but hunts in wetter habitats?
Serval
Serval and caracal are similar in size, but the serval lacks ear tufts and leaves smaller footprints.
Q 17Because caracals range widely across more than 50 countries, which status do they hold on the IUCN Red List?
Least Concern
Least Concern hides local trouble: caracals are thought to be close to extinction in North Africa and are critically endangered in Pakistan.
Q 18Caracals are shot as pests in southern Africa mainly because they sometimes kill which farm animals?
Sheep and goats
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.
Q 19In dry country a caracal can go without drinking by getting the moisture it needs from what?
Its food
Its food supplies the moisture a caracal needs, yet waterholes still matter because other animals gather there to drink.
Q 20Usually silent caracals growl and hiss when upset, but which sound do they make when content?
Purr
Purr like a pet cat is just what a happy caracal does, though an uneasy one makes an odd wah-wah sound instead.
Q 24Like a human fingerprint, which feature of a caracal's face is attached in a pattern unique to each cat?
Whiskers
Whiskers grow from black-marked pads on the caracal's face, and the same one-of-a-kind patterning is true of all cats.
Q 25Scratching a tree lets a caracal leave scent from glands on its face and between which body parts?
Toes
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.
Q 26Which rainforest-dwelling species is the caracal's closest living relative and shares the genus Caracal?
African golden cat
African golden cat and caracal look alike, but the golden cat has shorter untufted ears, a longer tail and a rounder face.
Q 27Scientists place the caracal in which family, alongside lions, tigers and ordinary house cats?
Felidae
Felidae contains eight genetic lineages, and the caracal's own lineage arose about 8.5 million years ago.
Q 28The Urban Caracal Project, based at a local university, studies wild caracals around which South African city?
Cape Town
Cape Town is home to the project, whose most-sighted caracal, Hermes, was recognised by his pale ear tags.
Q 29The Toubou people near Lake Chad named the caracal after which desert antelope it is reputed to hunt?
Gazelle
Gazelle cat is the Toubou name, and the caracal's historical range matches that of several small desert gazelles.
Q 30A caracal's upper eyelids sit low, making its eyes look half shut, probably to shield them from what?
The sun's glare
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.