Serval
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
A serval listens for prey hidden in grass and leaps in an arc to catch it.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Serval
- Scientific name
- Leptailurus serval
- Japanese name
- サーバル
- Group
- Land mammals
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Carnivora
- Family
- Felidae
- Genus
- Leptailurus
Where the name “Serval” comes from
The name serval is thought to come from a Portuguese word meaning lynx.
San Diego ZooIt is a tall, slender, medium-sized wild cat that lives in grasslands and similar places in Africa.
For its body size, it has the longest legs of any cat, and its ears are huge, like satellite dishes.
It hunts in the early morning and late afternoon and eats mostly small mammals such as rats and mice.
How the Serval lives
It can dig rodents out of burrows with its legs. It jumps straight up to catch birds and insects. It rests at midday and sometimes at night.
多摩動物公園University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- Head and body length: males 59–92 cm, females 63–82 cm多摩動物公園
- Weight
- males 7.9–18 kg, females 6–12.5 kg多摩動物公園
- Active
- At dawn and duskUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Diet
- Rodents, shrews, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and other animals多摩動物公園
- Range
- Africa south of the Sahara多摩動物公園
Where the Serval has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- サーバル
- 简体中文
- 薮猫
- 繁體中文
- 藪貓
- 한국어
- 서벌
- Español
- Serval
- Français
- Serval
- Deutsch
- Serval
- Português (Brasil)
- Serval
- Italiano
- Serval
- हिन्दी
- सर्वल
- العربية
- بج
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Serval
- Tiếng Việt
- Mèo đồng cỏ châu Phi
- Русский
- Сервал
- Türkçe
- Serval
- ไทย
- เซอร์วัล
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 多摩動物公園 — サーバルChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Leptailurus servalChecked: 2026-11-03
- San Diego Zoo — ServalChecked: 2026-11-05
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
Report a mistakeWhen you meet the Serval, look for this
- Look for the black spots across its body.
Animals do different things from day to day, so you may not always see this.
多摩動物公園EXHIBIT INFORMATION
Places that keep or show the Serval
Zoos, aquariums and other places whose official websites say they keep or show this animal.
Kanto
Displays can change with the animals’ health and the seasons. Check each facility’s official website before you go.
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Others in Felidae
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