African Servals Are One Less As Ohio Allows Bullets, Not Tranquilizers

Summary: African servals are down one cat Oct. 13, 2019, when a central Ohio sheriff's department deputy aimed bullets, not tranquilizers, at a young serval.

White spots on the back of the African serval's (Leptailurus serval) ears are thought to play a role in communication; Serval Sabi Sands, South Africa; Wednesday, July 18, 2007, 07:38: Profberger (Lee L. Berger), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

African servals are one cat less with the ambush Oct. 13, 2019, in central Ohio of a solitary, young serval that appears dehydrated, emaciated, hungry, stressed, thin, tired, weak in post-mortem images.

Jefferson Farms residents brought a Fairfield County Sheriff's deputy into their exclusive neighborhood off Laurelwood Drive, southeast of Canal Winchester, to bring down the exotic feline. The Fairfield County deputy carried weaponry, not tranquilizers, to the call and culled a casualty by 2:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (6:30 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time). Jefferson Farms residents declared that the young serval did undescribed damage to undescribed parts of a domestic dog of undescribed age, breed, gender, health and size.

The young serval exhibited a neck collar even though an examination of Ohio Department of Agriculture records evidenced no area owners of an exotic animal permit.

Eleven-year wild and 23-year captive life expectancies fit the young serval into family-focused African servals as one of a single-birth or a two to five-newborn litter.

Fifteen to 16-plus-month-old sexually mature female African servals gestate 67 to 79-day annual or biannual litters after courting their chosen mate and mating during four-day estrus cycles. The single mothers have dark-marked, gray-wooled, helpless newborns in abandoned aardvark burrows, dense shrubs or dark openings to or under rock piles anytime during the year. African servals, identified by Johann von Schreber (Jan. 17, 1739-Dec. 10, 1810), incline toward monsoon-month, springtime gestations because of increased prey populations and new vegetative growth.

African servals journey as den-bound 7.06 to 8.82-ounce (200 to 250-gram) newborns, 1.41 to 17.64-ounce (400 to 500-gram) 11-days-olds, sighted 9 to 12-day-olds and solids-eating three-week-olds.

African servals such as the young serval keep inside maternal dens until the weaned three to six-month-olds know mother-guided outdoor hunting skills as six to eight-month-olds.

Seventeen to 26-month-old sexually mature males locate within two years 4.4 to 12.36-square-mile (11.5 to 32-square kilometer) territories at maximum 5.96-mile (9.6-kilometer) distances from maternal territories. Mature females maintain 3.67 to 7.72-square-mile (9.5 to 20-square-kilometer) home ranges sometimes merging with males, never with females, and marked by face-gland scent, saliva or urine. Physical and sexual maturity nets lower-ranging female and upper-ranging male 23.23 to 39.37-inch (59 to 100-centimeter) head-body and 13.78 to 15.75-inch (35 to 40-centimeter) tail lengths.

Physically, sexually mature African servals obtain lower-ranging female, higher-ranging male 19.68 to 24.41-inch (50 to 62-centimeter) shoulder-sole heights and 15.4 to 39.68-pound (7 to 18-kilogram) weights.

Delicate-headed, yellow-eyed, long-necked, long-legged African servals possess high-held, large, rotatable ears with white-barred black backs; white undersides; black-barred, black-spotted, black-striped brown-red-yellow uppersides; and black-ringed, black-tipped tails.

Bats, birds, fish, frogs, hares, insects, lizards, mice, rats, shrews and snakes qualify as African serval prey at maximally jumpable, leapable 13.12-foot (4-meter) distances and heights. Keen-sensed, quiet-moving African servals realize early morning, late afternoon, night-time hunts by catching between their canines or claws outdistanced, outjumped, outleaped prey; and mid-day woodland rests. They survive annual average 32.52-inch (826-millimeter) rainfall and temperature at 56.66 degrees Fahrenheit (13.27 degrees Celsius) through wed grassy, wooded 12,467.19-foot (3,800-meter) altitudes above sea level.

The young serval, like all confrontation-wary domesticated and wild Leptailurus serval (λεπταλέος, "delicate" and Portuguese serval, "lynx"), teamed open lands for food with woodlands for rest.

Young serval, with left paw under chin, was killed, not tranquillized, Oct. 13, 2019, in Fairfield County, Ohio: Boinget @Boinget1, via Twitter Oct. 14, 2019

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

White spots on the back of the African serval's (Leptailurus serval) ears are thought to play a role in communication; Serval Sabi Sands, South Africa; Wednesday, July 18, 2007, 07:38: Profberger (Lee L. Berger), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Serval_from_back.jpg

young serval, with left paw under chin, was killed, not tranquillized, Oct. 13, 2019, in Fairfield County, Ohio: Boinget @Boinget1, via Twitter Oct. 14, 2019, @ https://twitter.com/Boinget1/status/1183727613522731008

For further information:

Boinget ‏@Boinget1. 14 October 2019. "10TV: Serval cat shot, killed after it was found near Fairfield County subdivision. https://www.10tv.com/article/serval-cat-shot-killed-after-it-was-found-near-fairfield-county-subdivision-2019-oct … via @GoogleNews." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Boinget1/status/1183727613522731008

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