We don’t know how many caracals are left in the world. That may surprise you. The authority on how many caracals that are left in the world should be the IUCN Red List. This is a conservation organisation which should be able to tell the world the status of the species of animal and plant at any one time. They are meant to assess whether a species is becoming extinct or is thriving. But they don’t achieve their goal, nowhere near it.
Most of their assessments are no more recent than 2014 which puts them out of date immediately. Things are changing rapidly and therefore there should be yearly updates but I guess a lack of resources prevents this. It seems that the world is not that interested in conservation but far more interested in the destruction of the natural world in the interests of commercial enterprises.
The IUCN Red List want to provide a detailed assessment of the population of the caracal. They also provide detail on the population trend i.e. whether it is going up or going down. They boldly state that they don’t know what the trend is. And there is no number under the subheading “Number of Mature Individuals”. An admission that they don’t know how many caracals are left in the world as at the date of this article which is 12 August 2021.
I am sorry to disappoint you. You would be disappointed again if you asked for the same information regarding a whole range of animal species including the wild cat species. I can say with some confidence that the best scientists in the world do not know the number of animals there are of any one wild cat species with any real accuracy. They can come to a reasonable best guess or guesstimate but no more. It is difficult to count the wild cat species.
They use camera traps and they check scats (faeces). However, many wild cat species are very secretive and hard to find. They have to be to avoid people! Sadly, though their habitat is being destroyed and they are being destroyed with it because they have nowhere to live.
There’s one thing that is sure, and you don’t need experts to tell you this, the general trend for the population sizes of all the wild cat species is down. You can write that into your textbook if you like. And some species are dangerously endangered. It’s a sad picture if you are concerned with the conservation of the wild cats.
SOME MORE ON THE CARACAL:
