---
title: "What the sources say about the Caracal | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "50 claims from the Caracal profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/caracal-1.webp"
canonical: "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/caracal/sources/"
---

# What the sources say about the Caracal (*Caracal caracal*)

> 50 claims from the Caracal profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Caracal](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/caracal/)

## Caracal. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/caracal

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| capable of vertical anti-gravity leaps up to ten feet and mid-air bird snatches | leaping up to 10 feet (3 meters) to swat a flying bird (note: tagline paraphrase of the same leap figure; 'anti-gravity' is voice, not a claim) |
| Vertical Leaps Up to 10 Feet to Snatch Birds Out of the Air | leaping up to 10 feet (3 meters) to swat a flying bird |
| Savannas, Semi-Deserts & Scrub Woodlands | savanna, semi-desert, dry woodland, arid hilly steppe, and dry mountains |
| found across much of Africa, the Middle East and into India | The caracal ranges across Africa and the Middle East to India |
| the heaviest and also the fastest of the small cats | Caracals are the heaviest and also the fastest of the small cats |
| the largest small cat in Africa | are the largest of the small cats in Africa |
| Females weigh 6 to 16 kg (13 to 35 lb) | Females are 13 to 35 pounds (6 to 16 kilograms) |
| males 8 to 20 kg (18 to 44 lb) | males are 18 to 44 pounds (8 to 20 kilograms) |
| standing about 46 cm (18 inches) at the shoulder | Height at shoulder: About 18 inches (46 centimeters) |
| a body 61 to 106 cm long | Length: 24 to 42 inches (61 to 106 centimeters) |
| In expert care a caracal can reach 17 years old; in the wild, more like 12 | Up to 17 years in expert care, about 12 years in the wilderness (note: current SDZ page used over ADW's older 20.3-year captive record, per 'check the date') |
| leaping up to 10 feet (3 meters) to swat a flying bird | leaping up to 10 feet (3 meters) to swat a flying bird |
| the most widely accepted theory is that caracals twitch them "as a way to communicate with fellow caracals" | the most widely accepted theory is that the cat twitches its ear tufts as a way to communicate with fellow caracals |
| other theories about keeping flies away or breaking up the cat's outline in grass | The tufts may help keep flies out of the cat's face or help to camouflage the caracal in tall grass by breaking up the outline of the cat's head |
| Caracals have been part of human life for hundreds of years | caracals have been a part of humans’ lives for hundreds of years |
| owners held contests over how many pigeons a cat could bring down in a single try, often reaching "10 or more." | Owners would have contests to see how many pigeons their cat could bring down in a single try, often reaching 10 or more! |
| That practice is the source of the English phrase "to put a cat among the pigeons." | The saying “to put a cat among the pigeons” comes from this ancient practice |
| Up to 3 meters (10 feet). San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance records caracals leaping that high to swat a flying bird | leaping up to 10 feet (3 meters) to swat a flying bird |
| the most widely accepted theory is that caracals twitch their ear tufts to communicate with each other | the most widely accepted theory is that the cat twitches its ear tufts as a way to communicate with fellow caracals |
| springs 3 m straight up to swat a flying bird | leaping up to 10 feet (3 meters) to swat a flying bird (note: task #617: vibe.reason mechanism) |
| tags: super-speed | the heaviest and also the fastest of the small cats (note: task #617: kept; the body's type IIx finding is the rapid-twitch half of the definition. No km/h figure exists in any cached source, so none is stated.) |
| dangerLevel: Medium | Occasionally, caracals kill mammals as large as an impala or young kudu and may attack domestic livestock (note: task #617: High to Medium. A 6 to 20 kg cat with real weapons (prey two to three times its mass, livestock) but no source in the pack records an attack on a person; the serval and ocelot sit at Medium on the same reading. battleStats.weightKg left unrecorded: SDZ's 6 to 16 kg females and 8 to 20 kg males straddle the 10 kg Light/Medium line, and the caracal is in no curated matchup.) |

## Caracal caracal (caracal). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Caracal_caracal/

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Carnivore (Rodents, Hyraxes, Hares, Birds, Small Antelope) | bulk of the diet is made up of hyraxes, hares, rodents, antelopes, small monkeys, and birds |
| the caracal turns its long, heavily muscled hind legs into a spring | the hind legs are disproportionately tall and well muscled |
| Animal Diversity Web says the exact function is "unknown." | The exact function of the ear tufts on C. caracal is unknown |
| Mammals, not birds, make up over half the diet in every part of the range | mammals make up over half of their diet in all ranges |
| Hyraxes, hares, rodents, small antelope, monkeys and birds are the bulk of it | bulk of the diet is made up of hyraxes, hares, rodents, antelopes, small monkeys, and birds |
| a caracal can take down prey two to three times its own mass | caracals can take down prey two to three times their mass (note: ADW's 'Unique among cats of their size' exclusivity dropped: an absolute resting on one old student-written page) |
| hyraxes get a killing bite to the nape, while something as large as a gazelle gets a suffocating throat bite instead | Small prey such as hyraxes are killed with a bite to the nape, while large prey, such as gazelles are killed with a suffocating throat bite |
| In India and Persia, caracals were once trained to catch game birds | In India and Persia, caracals were once trained to catch game birds and deer |
| Wild caracals otherwise hunt alone, hold a territory | Caracals are solitary, except for the duration of mating and rearing of kits. Both sexes are territorial and maintain an active home range. |
| lie flat in the open, where their plain coat acts as instant camouflage | When threatened in their preferred, open habitats, caracals lie flat and their plain, brown coats act as instant camouflage |
| Their known predators, lions, leopards and hyenas, do not regularly hunt them | their known predators (e.g., lions and hyenas) do not regularly hunt them (note: leopards added from the 'Known Predators' list (lions, leopards, hyenas); the 'do not regularly hunt them' line names only lions and hyenas as examples) |
| off hind legs that Animal Diversity Web describes as disproportionately tall and well muscled | the hind legs are disproportionately tall and well muscled (note: hind-leg build from adw-caracal's physical description; fast-twitch/type IIx point is the lion-2013 finding covered elsewhere in the body) |
| Animal Diversity Web says the exact function of the tufts is unknown | The exact function of the ear tufts on C. caracal is unknown |
| Animal Diversity Web says caracals can take down prey two to three times their mass | caracals can take down prey two to three times their mass |
| Small prey like hyraxes get a killing bite to the nape; something as large as a gazelle gets a suffocating throat bite instead | Small prey such as hyraxes are killed with a bite to the nape, while large prey, such as gazelles are killed with a suffocating throat bite |
| tags: carnivore | caracals are strict carnivores (note: task #617: replaces insectivore; no cached source puts insects in the diet, and ADW's Animal Foods are birds, mammals and reptiles) |

## Kohn & Noakes (2012). Lion (Panthera leo) and caracal (Caracal caracal) type IIx single muscle fibre force and power exceed that of trained humans. Journal of Experimental Biology.

https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.078485

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| only type IIx fibres turned up, the fast-twitch kind built for one quick, powerful effort instead of endurance | Only type IIx muscle fibres were identified in the caracal sample |
| the trained human cyclists in the same study had no pure type IIx fibres | there were no pure type IIx fibres |
| The cat's fibres are smaller than a human's | the lion and caracal fibres were smaller (P<0.01) in cross-sectional area |
| yet produced "~3 times more power" than the human fast-twitch fibres | ~3 times more power (29.0-30.3 kN m(-2) fibre lengths s(-1)) than the human IIax fibres (100-150 kN m(-2), 4-11 kN m(-2) fibre lengths s(-1)) |
| Its explosive type IIx fibres are smaller than a human's | the lion and caracal fibres were smaller (P<0.01) in cross-sectional area (note: blockquote restates the type IIx and fibre-size findings cited above) |
| still put out about three times the power | ~3 times more power (29.0-30.3 kN m(-2) fibre lengths s(-1)) than the human IIax fibres (100-150 kN m(-2), 4-11 kN m(-2) fibre lengths s(-1)) |
| on muscle made of pure fast-twitch fibres built for one explosive effort rather than endurance | Only type IIx muscle fibres were identified in the caracal sample (note: task #617: vibe.reason mechanism; same finding as the body's type IIx sentence) |

## Kohn et al. (2011). Fiber type and metabolic characteristics of lion (Panthera leo), caracal (Caracal caracal) and human skeletal muscle. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2011.02.006

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| caracal muscle leans on quick, oxygen-free energy release over the slow-burn kind human runners use | Oxidative capacity of both felids ... was lower than humans, whereas the glycolytic capacity was elevated |
| which the researchers said "confirm their sprinting behavior." | These data on caracal and lion muscles confirm their sprinting behavior. |

## Mukherjee et al. (2004). The importance of rodents in the diet of jungle cat (Felis chaus), caracal (Caracal caracal) and golden jackal (Canis aureus) in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, India. Journal of Zoology.

https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952836903004783

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| One scat study at Rajasthan's Sariska Tiger Reserve found rodents alone supplying "up to 70%" of the local wild cats' daily energy | Up to 70% of the daily metabolizable energy in felids was obtained from rodents, as compared to 45% in the jackal (note: scoped to the felids in that Sariska Tiger Reserve study, not caracals generally) |

## Avgan, Henschel & Ghoddousi (2016). Caracal caracal. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T3847A102424310.

https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2016-2.rlts.t3847a50650230.en

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Least Concern | Least Concern (note: category verified through GBIF's copy of the Red List for Caracal caracal, per the assessment DOI) |
| The IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. | Least Concern (note: category verified through GBIF's copy of the Red List, per the assessment DOI; iucnredlist.org itself refuses scripts) |