WATCH: Highway couple stopped in theirs tracks after spotting a caracal
The nature lovers said they hadn't expected to see something so rare.
HIGHWAY residents, Jason Mccall and his wife, Kate, said they weren’t expecting to see something so rare when they went on their hiking trail in Kloof yesterday, Sunday, May 7.
The excited avid hiker, Jason, said that caracals are really uncommon to see in the highway area.
“The beautiful animal greeted us about 10 minutes into our trail walk.”
The caracal is a medium-sized wild cat native to Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and arid areas of Pakistan and northwestern India. It is characterised by a robust build, long legs, a short face, long, tufted ears and long canine teeth.
“Only a few bush cams have picked them up – they are hard to see in person – they are shy and timid by nature,” said Jason.
So when his wife first spotted it, she said, “Hey, you’d better stop – look!“
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“We both stopped, and then it began walking towards us which was awesome. Usually, an animal will be skittish and run away immediately – but it was curious – so we obviously didn’t startle it too badly. Then it came within about three metres of us, turned and went off into the bush. It was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime moment! We were out for the hike and to take photos of birds primarily, so we had our cameras ready but not ready to see something so rare!” said Jason.
Paolo Candotti from the Kloof Conservancy said caracals have not been known to harm humans so the best way to avoid any potential hazard is to stand still and let the animal move on.
“They feed mainly on dassies and pigeons/doves, so they should not be any trouble to residents.”
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