Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Caracal is also a town in Romania; see: Caracal, Romania. Caracal Scientific Classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae Genus: Caracal Species: caracal Binomial name Caracal caracal The Caracal (Caracal caracal, sometimes Felis caracal) is a medium-sized wild cat. It resembles a lynx and is related to this genus. The length is 65 cm, plus 30 cm tail. It has longer legs and a slimmer appearance. The colour of the fur is variable: it may be wine-red, grey or sand-coloured. Young caracals bear reddish spots on the underside; adults do not have markings except for black spots above the eyes. Caracals are distributed over Africa and West Asia. Their habitat is dry steppes and semi-deserts. A caracal may survive without drinking for a long period - the water demand is satisified with the body fluids of the prey. It hunts at night (but in colder seasons also in the daytime) for rodents and hares; rarely it may even attack a gazelle, a small antelope or a young ostrich. Subspecies Caracal caracal caracal, East, Central and South Africa Caracal caracal algira, North Africa Caracal caracal damarensis, Namibia Caracal caracal limpopoensis, Botswana Caracal caracal lucani, Gabon Caracal caracal michaelis, Turkmenistan (endangered Caracal caracal nubicus, Ethiopia, Sudan Caracal caracal poecilictis, West Africa Caracal caracal schmitzi, West Asia, Arabia, India This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.