Young Baby Caracal Kittens

Caracals are nocturnal hunters. They are normally solitary animals, but some live in pairs. Social interactions usually occur only during mating. Caracals can purr, hiss, snarl, bark and growl. The caracal breeds throughout the year. Females have from one to six kittens per litter. The kittens become independent after about nine or ten months. The young then travel considerable distances to find and claim their own new territory. Females normally have one litter per year. In captivity, a caracal can live up to 16 years; in the wild, they live for 10 to 12 years. Females stay in one place to defend the territory, while males roam over larger areas. Both genders leave scent marks. The caracal's speed and agility makes them very good hunters; they are able to take down prey two to three times their size. Their powerful hind legs allow them to leap more than three metres (9.8 ft) into the air to catch birds on the wing. Caracals are primarily nocturnal, and occasionally arboreal although they usually stay on the ground.
• Distribution and habitat
The caracal inhabits woodlands, savannas, semi-deserts, and scrub forests, and prefers arid habitats with lower rainfall and some coverage. Although it hunts on the ground, it can climb trees and swim swiftly to catch fish. They are not found in tropical rainforests. However, they will inhabit evergreen and montane forests.
The caracal is widely distributed across Africa, the Middle East, and Southwest Asia into India. This small cat is distributed across all of Africa except for the equatorial forest belt and the central Sahara. The historical range of the caracal is similar to that of the cheetah; both overlap with the range of several small desert gazelles. However, the caracal remains today in a wider range. The caracal has remained in most of its historical range, although has lost a part of its range at the edges, especially in North and West Africa.