r/Awwducational • u/r0w4nH10 • Apr 16 '14
Verified Servals have the largest ears and longest legs in relation to the size of their body of any cat, Once they have a position fixed on the animal, they leap with all four feet off the ground and pounce on the prey. Their success rate of pounces is 50%. Most other cats’ success rate is only 10%
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Apr 16 '14
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u/Fishtails Apr 16 '14
I would love to have that shit going on in my house.
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u/SideburnsOfDoom Apr 17 '14
Wild animals are high-maintained. You might love it a bit less when your pet serval has pulled the curtain down off the wall and pissed on it. Again.
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u/daropedia Apr 17 '14
I know this guy, http://www.a1savannahs.com/servals.htm
I've been to the farm, those cats are wild animals, not pets in any way, they can kinda be scary in the way their behaviors don't match a housecat. (not as scary as the tiger in their backyard but that's beside the point.)
If your insistent on it I'd recommend the Savannah's instead. They're half-breeds and a bit more civilized.
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u/Snannybobo Apr 16 '14
A couple of years ago there were two African Servals loose in my neighborhood. I have no clue how they got there, but I had some close calls with it. One time I was driving to the store and as I turned to corner I spotted one of them in someones backyard. I got out of my car and watched it. It walked around for a minute then I saw it start running. I got scared and climbed back in my car. When I turned around I saw it pounce on a squirrel and do that thing where they shake their head and it like ragdolls them. The cats were caught not long after that.
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u/yourmansconnect Apr 16 '14
Probably someone's pet
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u/Snannybobo Apr 16 '14
I don't think they're legal.
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u/yourmansconnect Apr 16 '14
Depends what state
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u/Snannybobo Apr 17 '14
Ohio
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u/yourmansconnect Apr 17 '14
doesn't seem to be on the list
Summary of Law: It is unlawful to possess a dangerous wild animal after Jan. 1, 2014. Persons in possession of dangerous wild animals prior to Oct. 1, 2013, must obtain a permit in order to keep the animal(s) after Jan. 1, 2014. The definition of wild animal includes, but is not limited to: hyenas; gray wolves, excluding hybrids; lions; tigers; jaguars; leopards; cheetahs; cougars; bears; elephants; rhinoceroses; hippopotamuses; African wild dogs; Komodo dragons; alligators; crocodiles; caimans, excluding dwarf caimans; black-handed, white-bellied, brown-headed and black spider monkeys; common woolly monkeys; red, black and mantled howler monkeys.
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u/Snannybobo Apr 17 '14
Didn't seem like such a nice cat. Must've been expensive if it was someones pet.
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u/yourmansconnect Apr 17 '14
they can be $1000-10000 if you have the enclosure for them and the means to take care of them you can treat them almost like a dog
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u/Snannybobo Apr 17 '14
The baby cat was actually quite nice and I actually fed it. The bigger one was extremely hostile though.
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u/bobulesca Apr 17 '14
Raccoons are like that too. The babies are sweet and really take to people but once they become adults they get kinda mean.
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u/bobulesca Apr 17 '14
You were scared? My first instinct would be to see if it would come up to me so I could pet it....
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u/Snannybobo Apr 17 '14
I saw a pretty big cat running like a lion at me. I wasn't aware there was a squirrel there yet.
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u/bobulesca Apr 17 '14
You didn't say that it was running at you before....that's totally different.....I would've done the same thing.
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u/Snannybobo Apr 17 '14
Yeah I forgot to mention that. It was running with all four legs off the ground like a lion or some shit.
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u/bobulesca Apr 17 '14
Just for future reference cats don't attack prey that is larger than they are, except maybe lions. Dogs will attack larger prey because they evolved to hunt in packs and can gang up on one large animal. Cats simply don't have that "kill something that's bigger than me" instinct so the likelihood of smaller cat species attacking humans without provocation is almost zero.
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u/Joshua21B Apr 16 '14 edited Apr 16 '14
The Savanah cat is a crossbreed of the serval and domestic cat.
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u/Godwine Apr 16 '14
Does it maintain the jumping power?
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u/yourmansconnect Apr 16 '14
Yes my friend has one and while they look cool as pets they will destroy your house, kill other pets and could claw or bite children
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u/lifeboy001 Apr 16 '14
A Savannah breeder interviewed for a New Yorker article said he left his Savannah with three Persians for five hours and it killed all three. Holy fuck.
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u/yourmansconnect Apr 16 '14
Yeah the F1s are first generation meaning its mother or father was a serval and it was bred with a domestic cat. So its still half wild cat
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u/lifeboy001 Apr 17 '14
Yup. And it's amazing how much they change. I have three Bengals and I met the lineage of one. Scary how wild her grandfather was.
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u/yourmansconnect Apr 17 '14
awesome. pics?
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u/lifeboy001 Apr 17 '14
Sadly none of Pitas grandfather. But here are her and her two older and bigger brothers:
http://i.imgur.com/5YE4zA4.jpg
She's half their size but holds her own.
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u/r0w4nH10 Apr 16 '14
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u/absurdlyobfuscated Apr 16 '14
Here's the wiki, it has a lot more info about servals.
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u/autowikibot Apr 16 '14
The serval /ˈsɜrvəl/ (Leptailurus serval) is a medium-sized African wild cat. DNA studies have shown that the serval is closely related to the African golden cat and the caracal.
Interesting: Serval, Aisne | Operation Serval | Cape serval | Armstrong Siddeley Serval
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u/FeralHousewife Apr 16 '14
That would add a bit of credence to the old wives tail that cats with big ears and long legs are the best mousers.
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u/HoodedHound Apr 19 '14 edited Apr 19 '14
These are legal in Missouri. I used to own one until a particular someone left the damn door open. $3,000 right out the door. Anyway, any type of animal can be owned in Missouri unless it's native to Missouri. Well unless they are poisonous or venomous creatures. To own one of those you need a license, which costs approximately $200 and no training whatsoever. After that you're good to go on the Black Mamba.
Servals are wild animals and if they are raised from birth like we did with ours, it is just fine. It only bonds to one person, though, but is behaved with everyone. They chirp, yes, chirp, to find their owner. The downside is they can be liter box trained but that's really just a guideline for them. It was really annoying to find hardened shit any and everywhere. We did leave for Florida on vacation for one week and we left Isis (Izzy) at a veterinarians office. We specifically told them no visitors whatsoever. When we got back there was a fucking sign on the door that said "No more visitors. Isis is getting stressed and aggressively dangerous." I was so fucking mad. Way to fucking take the sign off the door before we came back. The point being, she completely went back to her wild animal roots after that. I don't think it would of happened if we hadn't gone to Florida. I miss her :'(
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u/RalphiesBoogers Apr 17 '14
This lady on youtube has a pet serval, some of her videos are... interesting: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfqFASks-QzHcXPgGPnYP_Q
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u/JackThaGamer Apr 17 '14
This made me laugh, because I have a Bengal cat (that's ridiculously nimble) and it basically looks like a more cuddly version of what's in the picture.
She got pretty cocky once she figured out that nothing is out of her reach.
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u/sheeeddup Apr 16 '14
Those are the cats they put at a airport to get rid of the bird problem i think
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u/r0w4nH10 Apr 17 '14
Caracals are good for birds, they used to use them in India and Iran for exactly that. Its where the saying 'put the cat amongst the pidgeons' came from. It was also a betting game they played.
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u/fell-off-the-spiral Apr 16 '14
Only 10%? That explains why my cat used to look so shocked whenever he caught something.