| August
2010: The
serval lives in Africa.
The range is marked in red on the map below. As the map shows, it is
widely distributed south of the Sahara
desert. North of the Sahara, recent records indicate that they may
inhabit Morocco2. The Moroccan range is
marked on the map. It is believed extinct in Algeria. The last specimen
was recorded in 18801. There have been no
recorded sightings in Tunisia for 30 years1
(since 2002). A few cats may survive north of the Sahara1...continued below the map. |
|
Within
its relatively
wide range, it's presence is limited to certain areas as this
wildcat has specific habitat requirements. It is found in all types of
grassland and their habitat is associated with water and vegetation
resulting from the presence of water courses (marshes and read beeds).
Servals are not found in desert or semidesert but can be found where
water penetrates into the desert.
At 2002 is was suggested
that it was extinct in the Cape Province of South Africa but as at 2010
the
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species® says that it is extinct in that
region. That is the
nature of the situation. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species® says
that servals have been
introduced into Tunisia.
The serval is native (originating, indigenous) to these countries:
| Angola,
Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso,
Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo, Côte
d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi,
Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal,
Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo,
Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, (Lesotho - uncertain)2. |
Sources:
1. Wild
Cats Of The World by Mel and Fiona Sunquist 2002 -page 143 -
published by The University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0-226-77999-8
2. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species®
Serval
Range to Serval
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