 In today's video, we are going to talk about some interesting facts and myths about the Karakal cat. The Karakal cat is one of Africa's ultimate hunters, a stealthy cat with an exceptional ability to hunt out prey on the savanna. The Karakal is a graceful, slender, cat with a short, thick coat and characteristic long black tufted ears. Its body color ranges from tawny gray to reddish brown, and sometimes entirely black melanistic animals may occur. They have distinctive narrow black stripes running from their eye to their nose and down the middle of their forehead, and their eyes are yellow brown, with circular pupils instead of slits. The kittens feature reddish spots on their undersides, which adults do not have. Here are some of the interesting facts about the Karakal cat, which will give you some further insight into its characteristics and temperament. 1. Karakals meaning. The name Karakal is derived from the Turkish word Karakulak meaning black ear. The Karakal was once trained for bird hunting in Iran and India. They were put into arenas containing a flock of pigeons, and wagers were made as to how many the cat would take down. This is the origination of the expression to put a cat amongst the pigeons. The Karakal is capable of leaping into the air and knocking down 10 to 12 birds at one time. 2. Karakals closest can. In terms of appearance, many similarities can be noted between the Karakal and the common house cat. They both share a small, almost spherical head with tiny marble-like eyes. However, the Karakal is more closely associated with and often mistaken for the serval. Despite a near-identical body shape and structure, the visible differences between the serval and the Karakal are actually quite striking. The Karakal looks like a serval that hasn't yet developed its black spots. The easiest way to tell the two apart is by their ears. Servals don't have the Karakal cat's distinct of your tufts. 3. Karakal cat's size and appearance. Often referred to as the desert lynx, the Karakal does not actually possess the same physical attributes of members of the lynx family, such as the characteristic rough of hair around the face. Instead, it has a short, dense coat, usually, a uniform tawny brown to brick red, and black melanistic individuals have been recorded. As the name implies, the backs of the ears are black and topped with long black tufts about 1.75 inches long. This tuft is the characteristic that Karakals do share with the members of the lynx family. It is the largest member of Africa's small cats, and it's most formidable. Males can weigh as much as 40 pounds, and females as much as 35. They stand between 16 to 20 inches at the shoulder and are 35 to 39 inches long. 4. Karakal cat's behavior. Karakals are solitary animals. They maintain a territory which they will mark by leaving feces where they can be seen and spraying urine onto bushes. Another method of communication is their vocalizations. These include the familiar purr of house cats along with mews, growls, hisses and a wah-wah noise which they used to show they were uneasy. This species shows no pattern for its activity being active both during the day and at night. On colder nights they tended to be active for long periods. 5. Karakal cat's distribution. The Karakals range as large, including a good part of Africa, to extend through the Arabian and Anatolian Peninsula, as well as Southwestern and Central Asia to Kazakhstan and Central India. In Africa, the Karakal is found everywhere except the Central Sahara, and the dense forest areas of equatorial West Africa. They occupy a range of habitats, being typically woodlands, shrub forests, and thickets, with rocky hills and plains also being common habitats, preferring edge habitats, particularly forest and grassland transitions. 6. Karakal cat's habits and lifestyle. Karakals are solitary animals, except during mating and the rearing of kittens. Males and females are both territorial and have an active home range. A male's territory may overlap the range of several other males, but a female's entire territory is for her individual use. Primarily nocturnal, sometimes Karakals are seen during the day, particularly in undisturbed regions. Although terrestrial, they are skilled climbers as well, with tenacious attitudes. The time of hunting is usually regulated by prey activity, though Karakals usually hunt at night. They have very good hearing and sight, and they communicate with a variety of growls, hisses, meows and spits. Hello. This video is sponsored by Beemix Pets. Are you looking for high quality cat collars at an affordable cost? Check out, BeemixPets.com. Use coupon code KittenLife, to get 20% off. 7. Karakal cat's are agile hunters. All cats must eat meat to survive. Karakals hunt at night but are not picky and eat any animal they can catch, sprinting after mongooses, rodents, hyraxes, dick-dicks, and monkeys. Occasionally, Karakals kill mammals as large as an impala or young kudu, and may attack domestic livestock. These agile cats have amazing jumping abilities, leaping up to 10 feet to swat a flying bird. Karakals keep their claws sharp to help them capture their prey. They sometimes climb trees and even stash their catch in the branches for a later meal. Because of their wide range, Karakals may be the top predators in their area, or there may be a larger carnivore to look out for. Karakals at the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park are fed a fortified meat-based commercial carnivore diet as their staple food, along with cat kibble. A fish and mouse are offered once a week as a special treat. 8. Karakal's durability without drink. Like an economical car that doesn't need to stop regularly to fill up on gas, the Karakal can go for significantly longer than its cat cousins without rehydration. Owing to an advanced water storage system and an advantageous ability to squeeze the last bits of liquid from its food, the Karakal can safely survive for longer without stopping to drink. This specialist attribute allows it to sustain itself throughout long-distance treks across dry, arid lands in search of nutrition. In short, the Karakal cat can roam further from the water, which means it can find its own food, away from the competition of lions and leopards. 9. Karakal cat's mating habits. Karakals are polygenandrous, where two or more males mate with two or more females. They are capable of mating any time during the year, but most often make between August and December. The gestation period is 10-11 weeks. Litters usually have three kittens. Mothers invest much time and energy in their offspring. A cave, tree cavity, or abandoned burrow is often the place for giving birth, and the first month after the kittens are born. After that, a mother may continuously move her litter from place to place. At about this time, the kittens start to play and to eat meat. Weaning occurs at around 15 weeks old, but true independence is not until the age of 5-6 months. Karakals are sexually mature between 6-24 months. 10. Conservation concerns. Karakals are not declining in most of their range, but there are still threats to their populations. These include habitat destruction due to agriculture and retaliation killing, as Karakals will hunt small livestock if given the opportunity. The species is legally protected throughout much of its range. Landowners in Namibia and South Africa are permitted to kill a Karakal when it is considered a threat to their property. 11. The Karakal cat as a pet. When we see some of the planet's proudest predators burrowing their heads into a slain animal's rib cage, quarreling over the remains of the delicious quarry, some of us mistakenly view them as cold-blooded killers. Emotion does not come into it. They are programmed to do what they just did and they will do it again without a second thought, as soon as the brain sends the necessary signal to say that they are hungry. Every single member of the cat clan is designed to survive, defend and attack. Nothing else is of any interest or importance.