This male serval scratched me. I was my fault. This is a bit of fun (it makes me laugh now) but at the time it hurt a bit and I wasn’t immediately sure how serious the injury was. The video quality is poor but it does highlight the need to take care when playing with a serval or any wild cat even the small ones are stronger than the domestic cat.
This serval is Morpheus and he is a very large cat by domestic cat standards. He is the size of a large dog. He had his claws (nobody had declawed him) and his teeth and all his weapons were intact.
Morpheus was an intimidating cat but I really wanted to get close and see what the serval is like. He was semi-tame living in a large enclosure at A1 Savannahs.
I was using a domestic cat “tease” – a feather on a stick to play with him and he got a bit excited and scratched my hand. He did is forcefully. I forget how I dealt with it; probably antiseptic and a bandage. It healed OK. Perhaps a scratch from a serval is less dangerous than a scratch from a domestic cat. There might be less bacteria on the claws. I don’t know though.
I felt sorry for Morpheus. He was in an enclosure that was too small despite being quite a large enclosure by breeder standards and he suffered from behaviorial problems. He paced back and forth. I hate seeing that sort of thing. His breeding partner was Penelope. His offspring were sold to breeders of Savannah cats I suppose or people selling servals as pets.
See a female serval hiss – impressive.
LOL!
OMG! Scratched!
Did you visit an emergency room?
Was there talk of an amputation?
Did you have to have a series of rabies vaccines?
Are you suing anybody?
That is a sort of the hysteria that wouldn’t surprise me here.
LOL…ambulance…help! 😉 No, it was not that bad. I more or less ignored it but it did hurt initially and I could see it getting out of hand. It is a bit of video material I had archived but seeing it again I quite like it. The serval does have the capacity to hurt a person. I don’t think I even told the Stuckis (the owners of A1 Savannahs a the time) about it.
For your interest, I had to sign a waiver at A1 Savannahs before entering the enclosures so if I got hurt I could not sue anyone. Standard practice I guess.
lol Dee you never fail to make me laugh, I love you!
Very sad video to watch, seeing the cage, seeing the cat panting, seeing the poor thing getting a bit of attention, (hearing Michael get scratched LOL)all so unnecessary, these cats shouldn’t be bred in captivity there are plenty of domestic cats desperate for homes without hybrid cats being bred for the sake of one upmanship, wherever this place is or was it is merely a cat production factory and should be closed down.
My heart aches for Morpheus and for all other caged big cats. Humans have taken away their freedom from small cats but still are not content, they want to own and control big cats too.
Interbreed from them for prestige, sell them for money, they have no right to do that!
I would like to see in cages, every person who thinks it’s acceptable to cage cats!
You are a wonderful advocate for animals. I feel like you as you know. I wanted to get some photos of a serval etc but my overriding feeling was the whole caged animal problem. There should be no caged animals anywhere. It is all wrong as far as I am concerned.
You didn’t cage them Michael, so you couldn’t give them their well deserved freedom either.
But you bring them to our notice by your photos.
Education is what it’s all about, showing people the truth, making them think about things that would never enter their minds otherwise.
We have to face some sad and horrible knowledge if we are ever going to be able to help those animals and this is what PoC is good at.
Look at the cats claws we’ve saved by educating in every way possible about the cruelty of declawing!
This is what I always say Michael
Cats are not just CATS
In all their difference breed and nature, they have different behaviors. and specially I may indicate here that big cats need special training/taming/socializing efforts and techniques and in all different breeds it goes in different ways. do not consider every cat in one word i.e. CAT.
no…not at all. The human being may have sufficient knowledge about feline behaviors but still it is not enough/sufficient because still research is under way.
I deal with small wild cats and kittens and every one has a different behavior and attitude towards me. but now I am equiped with much knowledge and can get a spiritual approach to them. It is my personal instinct that when and in which face the cat is aggressive or friendly. When some cats give you a smiling face but are playing with you, this sometimes means that this smiling face is an anger showing face. I can now judge by my instinct. Many people can not. In the movie this cat was aggressive play fellow, I don’t know why your instinct not told you before it scratched you.
Cages! I hate cages. Cages some times make a feral cat so mad that it just bust its head with the wires of a cage and injures it self.
A kind of madness develops in these cats when caged. Just try for an other experience Michael, and then you will come to the truth what I have experienced for my cats.
May Allah reward you for the love of cats <3 love you my friend 🙂
Thanks Ahsan. I knew I was taking a risk. I realised there was a good chance that I might get hurt but I wanted to get close and have the experience. This serval was very large and potentially dangerous. I did it for the website. But I disagree with the whole idea of cats in cages. There should be no caged cats of any kind anywhere. Small wild cats especially do badly in cages. They don’t breed (stress) and therefore zoos can’t create new animals when they die so they have to inbreed them and/or import them from the wild which is completely against conservation.
Lol I think I heard how you reacted to it 🙂 He is a beautiful cat and you can certainly see how big he is; very imposing. I have to say though unless breeding for conservation wild animals should be left alone in the wild to just live their lives.
You heard me swear. It hurt and I knew it was my fault. Yes, all wild cats should be allowed to live in peace in the wild.