Crossword clues for serval
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Serval \Ser"val\, n. [Cf. F. serval.] (Zo["o]l.) An African wild cat ( Felis serval) of moderate size; -- called also serval cat. It has rather long legs and a tail of moderate length. Its color is tawny, with black spots on the body and rings of black on the tail.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
African wild cat, 1771, from Modern Latin serval, French serval (Buffon, 1765), from Portuguese (lobo) cerval "lynx," from Latin lupus cervarius (source of French loup cervier) "lynx," literally "wolf that hunts the stag," from cervarius "pertaining to a stag," from cervus "stag," from PIE *ker-wo- "having horns," suffixed form of root *ker- (1) "horn, head" (see horn (n.)).
Wiktionary
n. A medium-sized African wild cat, (taxlink Leptailurus serval species noshow=1), formerly ''Felis serval''.
WordNet
n. slender long-legged African wildcat having large untufted ears and tawny black-spotted coat [syn: Felis serval]
Wikipedia
The serval (Leptailurus serval), also known as the tierboskat, is a wild cat found in Africa. The sole member of the genus Leptailurus, it was first described by German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in 1776. Eighteen subspecies are recognised. The serval is a slender, medium-sized cat that stands at the shoulder and weighs . It is characterised by a small head, large ears, a golden-yellow to buff coat spotted and striped with black, and a short, black-tipped tail. The serval has the longest legs of any cat relative to its body size.
Active in the day as well as at night, servals tend to be solitary with minimal social interaction. Both sexes establish highly overlapping home ranges of , and mark them with excrement and saliva. Servals are omnivores – they prey on rodents (particularly vlei rats), small birds, frogs, insects and reptiles, and are also known to consume grasses. The serval uses its sense of hearing to locate the prey; to kill small prey, it leaps over above the ground to land on the prey on its forefeet, and finally kills it with a bite on the neck or the head. Mating takes place at different times of the year in different parts of their range, but typically once or twice a year in an area. After a gestational period of two to three months, a litter of one to four is born. Weaning occurs at one month, and kittens begin hunting on their own at six months. The juveniles leave their mother at 12 months.
The serval prefers areas with cover such as reeds and tall grasses and proximity to water bodies, such as wetlands and savannahs. It is rare in northern Africa and the Sahel, but widespread in southern Africa. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources ( IUCN) classifies the serval as least concern. It occurs in protected areas across its range, and hunting of servals is either prohibited or regulated in several countries.
The serval is a type of feline.
Serval may also refer to:
- Armstrong Siddeley Serval, aircraft engine
- LIV (SO) Serval, military vehicle
- La Chapelle-en-Serval, commune in northern France
- Operation Serval, French operation in Mali
- Serval, Aisne, commune in northern France
- Serval project, a project providing infrastructure for direct connections between cellular phones
Usage examples of "serval".
Virtually all wild and exotic cats, including ocelots, margay, serval, cougar, and bobcat, can turn vicious as they age.
Virtually all wild and exotic cats, including ocelot, margay, serval, cougar, and bobcat, can turn vicious as they age.
The Weezwart crowded the stone tongue and shouted at the sailors and showed them jars of dhiz, and of laburnum, singing birds in wooden cages, monkeys and servals on the end of leashes, artifacts from hidden and ruined cities in the jungle, bags and purses made from the pebbly hides of the river saurians, and cloaks from tigers and leopards.