Medusa

Medusa, a Safe Haven resident since 2019

HISTORY

Caracal Medusa was privately owned by a Las Vegas couple. Too often, people purchase wild cats only to realize they will never be tame and are ill-equipped to properly care for them. Medusa was extremely overweight when she arrived at Safe Haven, actually double the average weight for a caracal her age. We worked on reducing the quantity and type of food she had been receiving, and successfully merged her with caracals Hantara and Sorcha and African servals Reina and Goya who are just about the same age as Medusa. Now she can interact with other wild cats – not humans.

ABOUT AFRICAN CARACALS

Caracals are medium size wild cats native to the dryer areas of Africa, Asia, and India. They have very distinctive long tufted ears and reddish/tan coats. Like the African Servals, they have strong long back legs allowing them to jump over ten feet to catch birds, but small rodents and mammals are their primary source of food. Caracals generally live no more than twelve years in the wild but can live as long as seventeen years in captivity. Caracal vocalizations include purring and hissing but can sound also like a leopard when distressed. Caracals will twitch their tufted ears as a means of communicating with fellow caracals.