There is a celebrity cat on the Internet called Stryker the Cat. We don’t even know the gender of this cat but I will presume that she is female for the time being because she is on the small side, let’s say, for a serval. And she is a serval not a Savannah cat as stated by the owners. In fact, the owners are very secretive about the species of cats that they own. I believe that they know their cat is a serval but disseminate the idea that she is a Savannah cat. See male serval Morpheus to compare (opens a new tab so you stay on the page).
They give the distinct impression to the public that this cat is an F1 Savannah cat. But I am convinced that she is not judging by the appearance. The big tell-tale for me is the nose leather. Down the middle of the nose leather of a serval you will see pink tissue in a straight, vertical line. You do not see this in the F1 Savannah cat.
Further, the F1 Savannah cat has markings which are lower in contrast than on the serval. The white underbelly is quite noticeable on the serval but much less so on the F1 Savannah cat. And then there is the overall appearance, taken as a whole. This includes the white spots on the back of the ears which are much more distinct in the serval compared to the Savannah cat. And the size, too, is a factor. And the behavior is different. I have watched a video on Instagram and this cat behaves like a serval. Note: I have interacted with semi-domesticated servals so I know how they behave in captivity.
Note: videos on this site are typically made by people other than me and held on YouTube servers or the servers of other businesses (not the server storing this website). Sometimes the videos are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened I apologise but I have no control over it.
Although the F1 Savannah cat is quite a big cat, it is smaller than the smallest serval. This cat is too big to be an F1 Savannah cat.
The fact of the matter is that it is quite easy for the public to mix up an F1 Savannah cat with a serval but the are completely different. The F1 Savannah cat has a father who is a serval and a mother who is a domestic cat. The serval is a medium-sized wild cat species. So the F1 Savannah cat is a wild cat hybrid while the serval is a pure-bred wild cat.
On the basis that I am correct, it may have an impact on the owners of Stryker the Cat. This is because they say she is a Guinness world record holder. If she is a serval she cannot be a world recordholder. This record must only apply if she is a Savannah cat.
There is no doubt in my mind too, that the prime reason why the owners of this cat wants to own the cat is because they can get some publicity for themselves and their cat on social media online. They have an Instagram page which is successful at 818,000 followers. They also have a YouTube channel with 38,000 subscribers. You can earn quite good money on advertising on YouTube videos. In fact, it is the best form of earnings through advertising on the Internet in my experience.
And it should be said that on their YouTube channel they clearly imply that this is a Savannah cat because they have a hashtag which states that: #savannahcat. But nothing else.
Why did I write this page? Because I like the truth and I don’t like people being misled. I also do not like the commercialisation of so-called celebrity cats on the Internet. Strictly speaking, celebrity cats are an exploitation of the cat for the benefit of the owner. Yes, I am sure that the cats are well looked after but the motivation for the whole project is celebrity. The owners get this vicariously through their cat!
And servals should not be pets. It is wrong. They should be running around the wild open landscape of Africa.
A genuine F1 Savannah cat – Magic
SOME MORE ON THE F1 SAVANNAH CAT:
Oh….and did I forget to mention; SIZE!!!!! A male serval will be 40 pounds or more. In prospective, this cat doesn’t appear that large. ????
Serval size varies considerably especially between genders.
Stryker is a gorgeous cat, no matter what he is! I have F1 Savannah cats and none look like him, so I see some people thinking he may be a serval cat. There is however, F1’s and HP F1’s. The HP is very rare, hard to produce, and extremely expensive. Over 20k per kitten. It’s when an HP F1 female is mated to a serval. That’s difficult as many HP F1 females are sterile. Not the F1 females. There’s a difference. These kittens are really high percentage. Like 85%. My F1’s are 59%. The kittens produced can be so serval like in appearance that they cannot be identified unless a DNA test is performed. In most Savannah cats that I’ve seen that are F1’s, the tail, ear size, nose pad, and ocelli, are a dead giveaway as to being a Savannah cat. So; my take is; if there’s confusion, a DNA test would set things straight.
Well — no wonder! I’m amateur when it comes to this, but I thought he was Serval due to behavior, sounds, appearance…so I was very surprised when I later saw he was listed as a Savannah.
I do know they can sometimes be very difficult to distinguish and I have seen even breeders argue over whether an escaped cat was Serval or F1 Savannah.
Some Servals look so distinctively wild, you can’t miss, but there are some Serval types that have something more reminiscent of a domestic, like Stryker and Lala the Serval who Stryker resembles.
I did not know thing about the nose stripe
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. One distinct difference is the bold, high contrast spotted coat in a significantly larger cat (serval) and the less flashy and contrasty coat of the Savannah cat.
You are correct, Stryker is a 100% Serval. They say it’s a male, I believe that to be true, he’s just on the small side. There are high % F1 Savannahs; dad serval, mum F1 Savannah, but anyone whose spent anytime with Servals can spot the difference. Thanks for calling this out.
Thanks for the comment. Appreciated.