Caracals in Cape Town, South Africa
About the urban caracal project
The Urban Caracal Project began in 2014 to investigate how caracals in South Africa are adapting to city-life in the Cape Town area, the factors that threaten their long-term persistence, yet also their amazing resilience in the face of rapid urbanization.
For more detail about the project, please visit our website and Facebook pages.
meet the cats Of cape town
The caracal is a striking medium-sized, robustly built cat with long powerful legs, large paws, a short tail and ear tips with long hair tufts. In South Africa, the caracal is also known as a 'rooikat' or 'lynx.' The most distinguishing feature of caracals are their very sharply pointed, lavishly tufted ears. They are the only wild cats within the Cape Peninsula of Cape Town, although historically leopards, lions, and African wildcats could also be found.
Locally, caracals are considered solitary and territorial animals, although within the Cape Peninsula, we have observed a remarkable degree of home range overlap, especially among males. They may form pairs for the duration of mating or small mother-offspring groups during rearing of young. Adult males have territories that typically range 70-100 square kilometers, although within the Cape Peninsula, there remains only approximately 250 square kilometers of wildlife habitat! Female home ranges are considerably smaller, ranging from 10-40 square kilometers. Male ranges are up to 3 times larger than female ranges and may overlap the ranges of several females.
Caracals are active more at night than the day, although people frequently report seeing them during the day in Table Mountain National Park. Credit: Urban Caracal Project
Caracals are primarily nocturnal, although within the Table Mountain National Park in the Cape Peninsula, daytime activity of caracals has been documented on numerous occasions. Caracals are strict carnivores, but they eat a wide range of prey ranging from small mammals such as vlei rats and mole rats, to antelopes such as grysbok and even bontebok! Caracals are opportunistic predators, so what is most numerous on the landscape and easiest to catch is what they will typically prey on. They are known for their acrobatic hunting ability, particularly when hunting birds. Locally, approximately 50% of their diet comprises birds, especially guinea fowl, egyptian geese, and cormorants. Caracals will prey on domestic cats, although based on our 2020 diet study. There are no cases of a wild caracal attacking a human.
In southern Africa, especially South Africa and Namibia, the caracal is seen as a ‘problem animal’ or a livestock killer and they are heavily persecuted in farming communities in particular. In the Cape Peninsula, we observe frequent vehicle collisions, disease, poisoning, lethal management by the City of Cape Town, domestic dog attacks. Caracals are also threatened by severe habitat loss.
IUCN Red List: Least Concern; rare in Turkmenistan (last assessed in 2002).
Dr. Laurel Serieys (left) and Gabriella Leighton (right).
Meet the PEOPLE
The Urban Caracal Project team is currently comprised of Dr. Laurel Serieys, Dr. Jacqueline Bishop, Gabriella Leighton (University of Cape Town PhD Candidate), and Chris Kyriazis (University of California, Los Angeles PhD Candidate). Our project is part of the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa at University of Cape Town. Our local project partners include South Africa National Parks and the City of Cape Town. Our Urban Caracal team wasn’t always so small. While doing the fieldwork for the project, we typically had 3 international volunteers along with our field team manager, Joleen Broadfield. At the moment, we are working on wrapping up lab work and data analyses.