Yet for all the effort that goes into achieving this particular look, there is an African cat that effortlessly achieves the same effect: the serval.
The striking servals that stalk the savannahs, plains, wetlands, and forests of Africa bear a certain similarity to these leggy models, sporting a matching kind of composed elegance. These servals are, in essence, the ultimate masters of the catwalk (and stalk and leap and pounce).
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The serval (Leptailurus serval) is a medium-sized cat that looks somewhat like a cross between a small cheetah and a large house cat. In reality, they belong to the “caracal lineage” of the Felidae family, along with caracals and African golden cats, though their peculiar shapes, spotted colouration and missing ear tufts set them apart from the other two species. Servals have the longest legs in proportion to their bodies of any of the cat species (hence the model comparison) and a tawny-gold coat dotted with a mixture of spots and stripes. Like caracals, their tails are relatively short in comparison to other cat species. There are rare sightings of melanistic servals, particularly in East Africa, and leucistic individuals have been born in captivity.
Though the serval is the only member of its genus, there are currently three proposed subspecies recognized by the IUCN’s Cat Specialist Group: L.s. serval of Southern Africa, L. s. lipostictus of East Africa and L. s. constantina of Central and West Africa. These distinctions, however, are based mostly on the trend observed within other African cats, rather than genetic analysis, and may change as further research comes to light.
Solitary and silent, servals are seldom seen but surprisingly widely distributed across a range of habitats in most of sub-Saharan Africa. There are also some small and isolated populations scattered in North Africa – specifically in Morocco and Tunisia. As a general rule, servals are not fond of arid areas. They prefer wetter habitats where rodents tend to be densely populated, with the exception being the central tropical rainforests of Africa, where they are notably absent.
