Tanzania: Ngorongoro Crater – Servals
Servals (or Leptailurus serval in Latin) is a wild cat that, while somewhat common across the Subsaharn Africa, is rarely seen. While everybody focuses on big cats – lions, leopards, cheetahs – these smaller cheetah-like cats are equally fascinating. Servals are slender and elegant medium-sized cats standing 54–62cm (21–24in) at the shoulder and weighing 9–18kg (20–40lb). They are still built like powerful predators, ready to stalk and jump on their pray, and they have the longest legs (relative to body) of all cats. Servals are solitary and pray both at day and at night. They prey on birds and reptiles (supposedly using their ears to appear like a butterfly), stall them slowly and quietly and then leap up to 2m in the air and land on the victim, biting at the neck. And we got super lucky to spot not just one serval, but two! Both hunting and stalking their prey.
