John Skelton, Age 12, of Eugene, Ore., for his question:
What is a serval?
He makes his home in the steamy jungles and on the torrid plains of tropical Africa. Yet the handsome serval wears a warm fur coat at all times. Being a member of the cat family, he cannot abide the cold. The serval and all the large and small cats of the tropics Seem quite comfortable in their furry coats.
The assorted cats of the world belong in the animal family Felidae. We know the affectionate little house cat because she is an adopted member of the human family and close at hand. But there are other small felines which we often fail to notice. This may be because the big cats capture all the imagination we have to spare.
We are impressed by the magnificent tiger and the lordly lion, King of Beasts. But many of the smaller cats are quite as fascinating as their whopping cousins. In eastern Asia there is a tabby type wildcat mho dines on fruit. Malaya has a small wildcat who is an expert fisherman. And the ocelot, a small wildcat of South America, is one of the most beautiful creatures in all the world.
The serval cat makes his home through most of Africa south of the Sahara. He is a long legged fellow with a long neck and a pair of overgrown pointed ears shaped like those worn by the ordinary house cat. He may be four feet long, plus i5 inches of furry tail. He may stand two feet high at shoulder level and tip the scales at 34 pounds.
The basic color of his beautiful coat is tawny buff. This pale honey color is spotted all over with large black dots, while his tail and perhaps a leg or two may be banded with black garters. He avoids people, as a rule, but when captured young he may become an affectionate pet.
In the wild, the serval can speed over the ground or scramble up trees with the greatest of ease. He likes to live on the brink of marshy rivers where he hunts water birds, bares and other rodents. The serval is just as good at hunting small game as is the lioness at hunting big game.
Most mammals of the tropics wear scrawny, monkey type hair, or, like the elephant, they wear no halt at all. The fur coated cats seem out of place. The felines may have developed, we are told, in the frozen north where fur was needed. But cats are comfort loving creatures, and later they migrated in their fur coats to warmer climates where life was more to their liking.