Before my interview weekend at Big Cat Rescue, I had never heard of the species caracal before. But when I saw Rusty and Sassy on my first tour here, I was immediately intrigued by their beauty.

Especially Sassy’s turquoise eyes have been the focus of quite a few of my photos.

Caracals are very interesting cats. Their distribution ranges from Central, South and West Africa to southwest Asia and the Middle East. Their name comes from the Turkish word “Karakulak”, meaning black ear in reference to their black ear tufts. Many decades ago, they were trained and tamed for bird hunting in Iran and India. They were put into arenas with a flock of pigeons, and people were betting on which cat could take down the most birds in one leap. Amazingly, a caracal is capable of taking down 10 to 12 birds at one time, due to their very flexible spine.

Here are a few interesting facts about caracals:

• Another name for caracal is desert lynx, although they are not related to the lynx species
• They live in the dry savannah and woodland regions of sub-Saharan Africa
• Their primary prey are rodents and hares
• 20 muscles in their ears enable them to detect prey
• Caracals are also able to kill prey larger than themselves, such as an antelope
• Their main threat is being killed for livestock predation, but they are also hunted for their skin and meat, which is considered a luxury by some tribes
• Solitary by nature, caracals have also been observed in pairs
• They can survive for a long period of time without drinking water
• In the wild, they live up to around 12 years