This is a video of an adult female serval playing with a feather on stick. I was holding the stick! The object between me and her is her home, an igloo shelter. She lives outside in Oklahoma. It is hot, very hot in the summer. Not that that would concern her as she is an African medium-sized wiild cat species. Her name is Serena. She is semi-domesticated and at one time lived with a woman who relinquished her to A1 Savannahs, where the video was filmed. She lived in an enclosure about 20 x 60 feet; fully enclosed on all sides including a roof.
It was filmed about 4-5 years ago I had decided not to publish it but having seen it again I think it does let people get a feeling for what this wild cat species is like. It also shows how similar the serval can be to the domestic cat under certain situations but make no doubt they are wild cats and behave like it – much stronger too.
I can only repeat that wild cats belong in the wild, it’s not right to breed semi wild kittens to live in captivity, no matter how large the enclosure they are imprisoned in happens to be!
No one should be allowed to OWN any wild creature!
I was sad to be in their with her. Kathrin Stucki who owned A1 Savannahs at the time with her husband was concerned about enclosure size. I don’t believe any cat breeder can truly animals including cats.
You are right Michael, to truly love cats we have to respect all cats and their natural way of life too.
Didn’t I read the Stuckis sold out to a hunter? That says it all, in fact it screams MONEY!
Tragic!
Yes, it is impossible to separate money from breeding cats. As soon as you commercialise cats you are working against their welfare.
Hi Michael
Very interesting article
But I have a point of view that although these wild cats are very beautiful innocent looking cats but we must avoid to keep them with in our population area until we do not have a large space and special technical knowledge/abilities to tame them and groom them.
I don’t know but somewhere in my spirit, keeping this wild huge cat within the home, gives me RED ALERT LIGHTS. I don’t know but it does. Maybe I am wrong, please guide <3
Thank you again for an informative article so much in detail, though some info still missing 🙂
Exactly!!! I agree with you totally. Wild Cats belong in the Wild. As if they are too Domesticated they lose their natural abilitiy. I mean I admire these Cats but would take alot i.e Having a huge area and having the right kind of FOod etc.
You are correct and I agree with you. There should be no captive wild cats, no domesticated wild cats, no zoos. All our energy should be in ensuring that the wild cat species are safe in the wild and that we can live in harmony with them. No where near enough it done in conservation despite the wonderful work by many conservation. Conservation needs more money, a lot more money.
Another point: wild cat species – especially the small wild cats – do very badly in captivity due to stress. The zoos don’t tell us that but they die young and don’t breed. It is a failure and cruel as far as I am concerned.
All the captive zoo wild cats are inbreed because they don’t breed therefore there are not enough of them to breed from. This creates health problems and depressed immune systems and short lives.
Lovely. I checked out the A1 Savannah site a few days ago. The new owners seem to be breeding more silvers than the golden-brown Savannahs. I still would like to visit them… one day, hopefully soon! 🙂 Have you spoken with the new owners, Michael?
I don’t like the new owners because he is a hunter. You may remember I did a page about it. Not my type at all. He wanted me to work with him but it is impossible for me. I hate people who hunt animals for fun.
She is a beautiful cat! She gives me the impression that she is more domestic than wild for some reason. Do you know how her previous family came by her? I think I’ve heard you mention Serena before.