Been seeing dozens of videos on YouTube recently where people had adopted a caracal as a house pet.
In case you don’t know, a caracal is a medium sized wild cat from Africa and parts of Asia.
What it is not is a big cuddly kitty cat. They are undomesticated, unfriendly, untamable, and uninterested in being anyone’s pet. They don’t like being touched, pet, or played with, not even by their so called “owner”. Most of the videos show them growling, hissing, and lunging even at the “owner”.
These are dangerous animals and are perpetually pissed off. They don’t want to be there.
So having all these qualities in abundance what do the “owners” do?
Why antagonize the living shit out of them, of course, by getting in their face with cameras or teasing them with food. I can’t wait to see the video of one of them thrashing someone to shreds. Just hope it isn’t a child or unsuspecting visitor.
People get these things as a status symbol. I predict sooner or later their status will be severely injured if not dead! Just get a rabid pit bull that has VD why don’t you? People are really stupid.
I knew of them, mostly for their habit of leaping high in the air to take birds in flight, which is quite cool. They look rather handsome as well (I thought they and lynx were closely related but reading up on it now I see they are not, we live and learn).
I’m sure that "cool " is all that the prospective owners really care about but ultimately, as has been said, they are wild animals, quite unsuited to be a pet and well big enough to give you huge problem if they decide to harm you.
Leave them in the wild and get something else to boost your ego.
Clearly, most of these people are engaging in a stupid fad which will end when the “coolness” wears off and/or someone gets severely injured. At which point lots of caracals will be dumped into animal rescues.
Not pets, but some are raised to be sold as pets. So this isn’t as bad as those that try to keep cougars as pets or any of the big cats. They are very dangerous to other animals and any strangers in the house. A caracal might be fairly well behaved around their human, but very dangerous to others.
In their favor, they do use littler boxes. Though they don’t bury. So that must make for a wonderful odor.
Also remember, nice friendly housecats can play too aggressively at times and rake your arms, now imagine a 35lbs caracal with their extra long and strong claws doing the same.
I just saw one at the zoo yesterday. I’m pretty sure it was listed as a rescue. My guess is this meant a stupid human was rescued from their “pet”.
Fully agree, leave them in the wild.
Adopt a shelter cat instead.
Caracals look more like a bobcat than a cougar:
Note: Cougars/Mountain Lions/Puma are the largest of the small cats.
One time I saw something like that walk parallel to me and then ahead of me in a drainage ditch. It was not at all intimidated by me. I don’t know if it was the same but you should have seen move away like my buns were burning.
Domestic cats actually are, well, domesticated. They can and do show affection towards humans (although not with as much enthusiasm or in the same manner as dogs), they can be played with without triggering aggression, many enjoying stroking/petting. They are not continually hissing, growling, lunging, or harming others. (If they are, there is almost certainly some form of abuse going on)
Wild animals may be “tame” when babies or juveniles, but a species that is, by nature, largely solitary is NOT a social animal. You might be able to keep such an animal, or even train it to some extent, but it’s not going to be affectionate, it may have zero desire to play or interpret playing as a threat or aggression, and are dangerous to have around.
There are some people who have the knowledge and resources to keep such animals in a manner safe for both the animals and humans. They are, by and large, NOT the people making “cute” tik-toks.
Feral ones most certainly display that behavior. Big cats raised in captivity often display the same mannerisms as the typical house cat too - it’s just that when they decide to bite or scratch you (either for fun or our of annoyance), the size of the teeth and claws make all the difference. IMO all cats will cat.
I seem to recall that cats in the ocelot group are/were popular for awhile. That family includes the margay. I recall a news story many years ago about a panicky call to Animal Control. When the officers arrived they were told that the cat the person had purchased was going insane in the house, ripping it to shreds, and had chased them outside. Turned out that the cat they thought was a young ocelot was a full-grown margay that was decidedly unhappy with its new home.
