Wild cat on the prowl in Ladysmith
This is not the first time this kind of wild cat has been seen in the Ladysmith area
Workers were terrified when a serval (wild cat) was spotted at a premises on the N11 recently. Security guard, Aubrey Khumalo recalls the incident like it was yesterday. He told the Ladysmith Gazette he was at work when he saw the animal roaming around the yard, initially thinking it was a cheetah.
At first he said, the animal did not notice him. As it got closer to where Khumalo was waiting however, it noticed him or perhaps his scent, and began moving deliberately in his direction. Fearful, he threw a stone at the serval and it fled.
“Everything happened so fast and I was terrified,”says Khumalo. His fellow worker, Sboniso Shabalala was driving back to the office and as he opened the door of his vehicle, he saw the serval sprint past him and leap over a tall fence. “We were sure it was a cheetah, but when we looked at the photos on the Internet, the pictures of servals looked just like the one we saw,” said Shabalala.
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The duo immediately informed their supervisor about the incident, who in turn contacted Ladysmith Protection Services for assistance. No new information has been received on this incident. Also known as the tierboskat, the serval is a wild cat found in Africa and is typically a slender, medium-sized creature which measures between 54 and 62 centimetres at the shoulder, and can weigh as much as 18 kilograms.
It has a small head, large ears, a golden-yellow to buff coat, black spots and stripes and a short, black-tipped tail. This is not the first time this kind of wild cat has been seen in the Ladysmith area, with a resident contacting the Animal Anti-Cruelty League (AACL) on June 1, 2017 after spotting a what she believed to be a cheetah in her yard in Modelkloof.
It was in fact a serval, which could not scale the precast wall to freedom. After contacting the AACL, the league admitted it was out of its depth capturing wild animals and eventually snake man, Fanie Cilliers helped capture the serval. It was taken to a nearby game reserve and safely released.
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