‘We are hoping that he and Velma hit it off:’ Roger Williams Park Zoo now has a pair of servals, unique cat well-liked in historic Egypt
PROVIDENCE − Roger Williams Park and Zoo has a brand new unique cat, a part of a breed featured in Ancient Egyptian paintings and even saved by Egyptians as glamorous pets – an African serval.
Sav, a 14-year-old male serval, will quickly be a part of feminine Velma, who arrived on the zoo final yr and was its first serval.
“We are hoping that he and Velma hit it off and have offspring,” mentioned Vicki Scharfberg, the zoo’s director of selling and public relations.
Servals are a part of the zoo’s 20-year plan, however Velma’s arrival final yr from a distressed breeder in California got here ahead of anticipated and prompted the zoo to launch a $346,000 fundraising marketing campaign to build a serval home.
Sav got here from the Capron Park Zoo in Attleboro. He has simply three legs attributable to an accident as a kitten, in accordance with Scharfberg. He arrived final week and, after a interval of quarantine, can be launched to Velma, she mentioned.
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Servals are medium-sized wild cats that may be present in most elements of Africa, in accordance with the African Wildlife Foundation. They’re carnivores and thought of wonderful hunters, aided by lengthy legs that allow them see over savanna grasses and enormous ears that present them with an “acute sense of listening to,” the inspiration says.
“Servals eat a fantastic number of prey, together with rodents, birds, reptiles, frogs, and bugs. They catch a lot of their prey by leaping excessive into the air and pouncing,” the wildlife basis says. “They have additionally been seen utilizing their lengthy forelimbs to achieve into burrows or to hook fish out of the water. They are fairly profitable hunters and infrequently eat carrion.
Described by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance as “tremendous glossy,” servals are medium-sized cats with lengthy, slender legs, lean our bodies, quick tails and small heads. “Their extra-long neck and legs give them the nickname ‘giraffe cat,'” the alliance says. There are solely about 150 in U.S. zoos.
Ancient Egyptians weren’t the one ones interested in the unique look and spectacular athleticism of servals. Some within the United States have saved or tried preserving, them as pets, however it’s unlawful in most states, together with Rhode Island.
Some breeders cross servals with home cats to provide what are known as Savannah cats, which even have wild tendencies and are unlawful in Rhode Island. In 2017, a Savanna cat was taken into state custody after it went inside a Cranston home and attacked a home cat.
For Rhode Islanders focused on getting a superb have a look at a serval, the zoo hopes to have the 2 cats of their new building by March, Scharfberg mentioned, and visual to friends within the new building and outside habitat by April.
