Animal
Serval
The serval is a slim wild cat from Africa. It has very big ears, very long legs and a spotty coat.
The serval is a slender wild cat of African grasslands and wetlands. Its huge ears can hear mice moving in tall grass, and its long legs let it leap high into the air to pounce on them or snatch a bird.
Leptailurus serval is a medium-sized African cat with the longest legs and largest ears for its body size of any cat. A specialist hunter of rodents in long grass and reedbeds, it is listed as Least Concern globally, though wetland loss and the skin trade threaten it in places.
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the serval
The serval is a wild cat that lives in Africa.
It is bigger than a pet cat. It has golden fur with black spots and stripes. Its ears are very big, and its legs are very long.
The serval is a slim, spotted wild cat from Africa. It is bigger than a house cat but much smaller than a leopard: an adult stands about 45 to 60 centimeters tall at the shoulder, about knee-high on a grown-up.
The San Diego Zoo says people sometimes call it the "giraffe cat" because of its extra-long neck and legs. It also has the largest ears of any cat. Those ears and legs make it a brilliant hunter of mice and rats hiding in tall grass.
Leptailurus serval is the only member of its genus. A molecular study found it is most closely related to the caracal and the African golden cat, sharing a common ancestor with them roughly 5.4 million years ago, according to the IUCN Red List assessment.
Adults weigh about 7 to 18 kilograms, with males larger than females. Relative to its body size the serval has the longest legs of any cat (SANBI) and the largest ears (San Diego Zoo). Its body is built for one job: finding and catching small animals in long grass and reedbeds, which it does with remarkable success.
Quick facts
- Group
- Mammal
- Length
- 0.59 to 0.92 m
- Height
- 0.45 to 0.6 m
- Weight
- 7 to 18 kg
- Lifespan in the wild
- up to 10 years
Where it lives
Servals live in Africa.
They like tall grass near water. They hunt in grassy fields, beside rivers and in wet, reedy places.
Servals live across much of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. They are not found in the thick rainforests of central Africa or in deserts.
Their favorite places are wet ones: tall-grass savannas near rivers, swamps and reedbeds. These places are full of rats and mice, which is exactly what a serval wants. Some servals even live high on mountains: the IUCN reports them up to 3,800 meters on Mount Kilimanjaro.
The IUCN's global assessment describes the serval as occurring widely through sub-Saharan Africa except tropical rainforest and the Sahara. It is most closely tied to well-watered long-grass savanna, reedbeds and riverside vegetation, and it ranges into alpine grassland up to 3,800 meters on Kilimanjaro.
North of the Sahara a small, isolated population near the Mediterranean coast is regionally Critically Endangered, with fewer than 250 mature animals; servals were reintroduced to Tunisia using animals from East Africa. Servals can live on farmland where cover, water and rodents remain, and new records in places such as central South Africa and Gabon suggest they are recolonizing some areas.
Continent
Its habitats
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
- Brought back by people · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Well-watered grasslands, reedbeds and riverside habitat across sub-Saharan Africa, but not the central African rainforest or deserts. Servals live in only part of each country shown.
Places: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Rep., Chad and 31 more places.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Angola, Zambia, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and 33 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Brought back by people · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Servals died out in Tunisia and were reintroduced to Feidja National Park using animals from East Africa.
Places: Tunisia.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Servals eat mostly mice and rats.
They also catch birds, frogs, lizards and big bugs. A serval listens for a mouse, then jumps up high and lands on it with its front paws.
Servals are carnivores, and their main food is rodents such as rats and mice. The IUCN Cat Specialist Group says rodents make up 80 to 90 percent of what servals eat. They also take birds, lizards, snakes, frogs, fish and insects, mostly when rodents are hard to find.
A serval hunts by listening. It waits in the tall grass at dawn or dusk, finds a mouse by sound, then leaps up and comes down on it, pinning it under its front paws. It can even reach a long leg down into a burrow to pull out a meal.
Servals are rodent specialists: in studies summarized by the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, rodents such as vlei rats and Nile rats make up 80 to 90 percent of the diet, with hares, birds, reptiles, frogs, fish and insects taken mostly when rodents are scarce. Larger prey is rare.
Its hunting is very efficient. In Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater, servals caught prey on about half of their attempts, and the Cat Specialist Group notes that success with rodents alone can reach 81 percent. A serval pounces in a high arc that can cover 1 to 4 meters, landing on prey to stop it escaping in thick grass; birds and insects are swatted from the air with the front paws. Because it eats so many rodents, the Cat Specialist Group notes that one serval can eat up to 4,000 a year, which helps farmers.
Did you know?
A serval can jump up high to catch a bird.
From a standing start, a serval can jump about 3 meters into the air, about as high as a basketball hoop, to catch a bird.
The IUCN Cat Specialist Group reports vertical leaps of up to 3 meters from a standstill, with birds and insects seized by clapping the front paws together.
An amazing body
A serval's ears are huge.
They can turn to catch tiny sounds. Its long legs help it see over the grass and jump very high. Its spots help it hide in the grass.
Everything about a serval's body helps it hunt in tall grass. Its enormous ears pick up the tiny rustles and squeaks of rodents. The San Diego Zoo says that if our ears were as big for our heads as a serval's, they would be the size of dinner plates!
Its long legs and neck let it look over the grass and make huge leaps. Its golden coat with black spots and stripes blends in with grass and shadows. The back of each ear is black with a white bar.
The serval's ears are large, set high and close together on a small head; each contains 22 muscles and can swivel up to 180 degrees independently, letting the cat pinpoint sounds, even from prey underground (SANBI). The bony chambers of the middle ear, the auditory bullae, take up about 22 percent of the skull's length (IUCN Cat Specialist Group).
The hind legs are longer than the front legs, and long, mobile feet carry strong, curved, retractable claws. The coat is pale yellow to tawny with black spots that often merge into stripes on the neck and shoulders. All-black servals have been recorded, mostly in highlands of eastern Africa such as the Aberdare Range and the Ethiopian highlands.
Growing up
A baby serval is called a kitten.
The mother hides her kittens in tall grass or an old burrow. She brings them food. When they grow up, they go off to live on their own.
A mother serval is pregnant for about 65 to 75 days. She usually has two to four kittens, hidden in thick grass or an old burrow. A newborn kitten weighs only about 230 to 250 grams, about as much as a cup of water.
The mother raises her kittens alone. When they are about a month old she starts bringing food back to the den. Young males leave once they can hunt for themselves, but daughters are allowed to stay near their mother for longer.
Servals can breed at any time of year, but births tend to peak in wet seasons, when rodents are most plentiful. Gestation lasts about 65 to 75 days (IUCN Cat Specialist Group), and litters range from one to five kittens, usually around three (San Diego Zoo), each weighing roughly 227 to 255 grams at birth.
Kittens are weaned at three to four months and become independent at six to eight months, though young servals may stay in their mother's range for a year or more. Mothers tolerate daughters longer than sons. Servals mature at 18 to 24 months. SANBI estimates they live up to about 10 years in the wild; in zoos they can live much longer.
A life alone
Servals like to live alone.
They hunt early in the morning and in the evening. In the hot middle of the day, they rest in the shade. Servals can purr, hiss and growl.
Servals are solitary, which means each one lives mostly on its own. They are most active around dawn and dusk and rest in the heat of the day, often in shady bushes or old burrows dug by aardvarks.
Each serval has a home area that it marks with smells, spraying urine on grass and bushes. Servals talk with sounds too: they can purr, hiss, growl and meow, and they make a high-pitched chirp. If a bigger animal chases it, a serval can climb a tree to get away.
Servals are solitary and territorial, active mainly around dawn, dusk and at night, though more active by day than most cats. Females are more active in daylight than males, which the IUCN Cat Specialist Group suggests may help keep their kittens safe from spotted hyenas, and mothers with kittens hunt more by day. Home ranges can last four to nine years and vary widely, from 1 to 2 square kilometers where servals are dense to over 30 square kilometers for some males.
Male ranges overlap those of several females, while females overlap little. Both sexes scent-mark with urine, and fights between servals are rare. Their calls include a high chirp, purrs, hisses, growls and meows (SANBI). Leopards, hyenas and lions sometimes kill servals, and a chased serval may escape up a tree.
Did you know?
Some servals are all black.
Most servals are golden with black spots, but some all-black servals live in the highlands of East Africa.
Melanistic (all-black) servals are recorded mostly in East African highlands such as Kenya's Aberdare Range and the Ethiopian highlands.
Helping servals
There are still many servals in Africa.
But they need wet, grassy places to hunt. People help servals by keeping rivers, swamps and grasslands safe.
The serval is listed as Least Concern, so it is not in danger of dying out worldwide. It is found in many national parks, such as Serengeti in Tanzania and Kruger in South Africa.
But servals have problems. The biggest is the loss of the wetlands where they hunt. Burning and overgrazing of grasslands means fewer rodents to eat, and some servals are hunted for their spotted fur. Protecting wetlands is the best way to protect servals.
The IUCN's global assessment (assessed 2014, published 2019 and marked as needing an update) lists the serval as Least Concern with a stable population trend. The main threat is the loss and degradation of wetlands, which hold high rodent densities and form the core of serval home ranges. Annual burning followed by overgrazing reduces small mammals in grasslands.
Skins are still traded in large numbers in countries such as Senegal, Gambia and Benin, and servals are sometimes killed by farmers for taking poultry, even though they also eat crop-damaging rodents. The species is on CITES Appendix II, which controls international trade, and hunting is banned or regulated in many range countries.
IUCN Red List
How is the serval doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2
Amazing facts
-
If you had ears like a serval's, they would be as big as dinner plates!
The San Diego Zoo says that if our ears were as big for our heads as a serval's, they would be the size of dinner plates.
For its body size the serval has the largest ears of any cat; the San Diego Zoo compares them to human ears the size of dinner plates.
-
A serval can jump up high to catch a bird.
From a standing start, a serval can jump about 3 meters into the air, about as high as a basketball hoop, to catch a bird.
The IUCN Cat Specialist Group reports vertical leaps of up to 3 meters from a standstill, with birds and insects seized by clapping the front paws together.
-
One serval can eat thousands of mice in a year.
One serval can eat up to 4,000 rodents in a year, so servals can help farmers by eating rats and mice.
The Cat Specialist Group estimates a single serval can eat up to 4,000 rodents a year, which makes it useful to farmers even though it is sometimes persecuted for taking poultry.
-
Some servals are all black.
Most servals are golden with black spots, but some all-black servals live in the highlands of East Africa.
Melanistic (all-black) servals are recorded mostly in East African highlands such as Kenya's Aberdare Range and the Ethiopian highlands.
Words to know
- carnivore
- an animal that eats other animals
- rodent
- a small gnawing mammal, such as a mouse or rat
- solitary
- living mostly alone
- wetland
- land that is wet or covered by shallow water, like a swamp or marsh
- pounce
- to jump suddenly onto something to catch it
- crepuscular
- most active at dawn and dusk
Discovery challenge
-
What helps a serval find mice in tall grass?
Which body part does a serval use most to find prey hidden in tall grass?
Which feature lets a serval pinpoint prey it cannot see in long grass?
- Its huge ears
- Its short tail
- Its black spots
Show the answer
Its huge ears
A serval listens with its giant ears to find mice.
Servals find prey mostly by hearing, turning their huge ears to locate tiny sounds.
Each large ear has 22 muscles and swivels independently, letting the serval locate prey by sound, even underground.
-
What does a serval eat most?
What makes up most of a serval's diet?
Which group of animals makes up about 80 to 90 percent of a serval's diet?
- Grass
- Rats and mice
- Fruit
Show the answer
Rats and mice
Servals eat mostly rats and mice.
Rodents such as rats and mice are a serval's main food; it also eats birds, frogs, lizards and insects.
Rodents make up 80 to 90 percent of the diet; other prey is taken mostly when rodents are scarce.
-
Where do wild servals live?
On which continent do servals live in the wild?
Where is the serval's native range?
- South America
- Australia
- Africa
Show the answer
Africa
Servals live in Africa.
They live across much of Africa south of the Sahara, in grassy places near water.
Sub-Saharan Africa outside rainforest and desert, plus a small, isolated population in North Africa.
-
How does a serval catch a bird?
How can a serval catch a bird that flies up out of the grass?
How does a serval take a bird that flushes from the grass?
- It leaps high into the air
- It swims after it
- It digs a deep hole
Show the answer
It leaps high into the air
The serval jumps up high and grabs the bird with its paws.
Servals can jump about 3 meters straight up and grab the bird with their front paws.
Servals leap vertically, up to about 3 meters from a standstill, and seize birds by clapping or striking with the forepaws.
Places where you might see it
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Watch
Country
Tanzania
Tanzania is a country in East Africa, just south of the Equator, on the Indian Ocean. It has Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, deep lakes in the East African Rift, and the Serengeti, where huge herds of wildebeest travel each year.
-
Watch
Country
Kenya
Kenya is a country in East Africa, crossed by the equator. It has the snow-capped Mount Kenya, the deep Great Rift Valley, Lake Victoria and a long Indian Ocean coast, and about 54 million people live there, many of them speaking Swahili.
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Tanzania
Tanzania is a country in East Africa, just south of the Equator, on the Indian Ocean. It has Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, deep lakes in the East African Rift, and the Serengeti, where huge herds of wildebeest travel each year.
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Kenya
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe how the serval's ears, legs and coat help it hunt in tall grass.
- Explain that servals are carnivores that eat mostly rodents and how that can help farmers.
- Locate the serval's range in sub-Saharan Africa and link it to wetlands and long grass.
- Understand why protecting wetlands protects servals.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might finding food by sound work better than by sight in tall grass?
- How could a serval be helpful to a farmer, and why might a farmer still be unhappy with one?
- What would happen to servals if a big wetland were drained?
Try at home or in class
- Measure 3 meters up a wall or along the floor with tape to see how high a serval can jump.
- Cup your hands behind your ears and turn your head slowly: notice how much easier it is to tell where a quiet sound comes from.
Key vocabulary: carnivore, rodent, solitary, wetland, pounce, crepuscular
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Leptailurus serval, global Red List assessment (assessed 2014, published 2019) , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Serval , San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
- Serval (Leptailurus serval) , IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group
- Serval , South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.