Meet the Cat Family!: Africa's Other Cats: Meet The Cat Family!

By B. J. Deming

Africa is famous for its big game and big cats. But if it didn't also have small cats, this great continent would soon be awash in rodents and other small animals.

 

African wildcats are widespread and were domesticated thousands of years ago to become house cats. As part of an international lineage, they are described in another book in this series.

 

But what about that spotted cat with the super-long legs? And the one with crazy ears?

 

In this book, meet those two remarkable members of the cat family -- serval and caracal, respectively -- along with three other uniquely African cats.

 

Each chapter contains statistics, pictures, Red-List status and information about the cat's lifestyle and wild prey. There are also links to conservation sites online for you to investigate, as well as an extensive reference section in the back of the book.

 

Buy this book today and spend hours relaxing with Africa's OTHER cats!

• Language: English
• Publisher: B. J. Deming
• Release date: Feb 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393314288

B. J. Deming

Barb is a layperson, retired from medical transcription after twenty-five years, and enjoying a new chance to explore earth science thanks to the Internet and (finally) some free time.  She has been blogging at FlightToWonder.com for years, tweets at Twitter.com/@bjdeming, and is hoping to make this science writing gig full-time in 2021.

Book preview

Preface

Africa is famous for its big game and big cats, of course.  But if it didn't also have small cats, Africa would soon be awash in rodents and other small animals.

Many people have heard of the wildcats here.  They're widespread and were domesticated thousands of years ago to become house cats.  Thus, as part of an international lineage, African steppe wildcats are described in another book in this series.

But what is that spotted cat with the super-long legs?

And the one with crazy ears?

In this book, we're going to meet those two—the serval and caracal, respectively—along with three other uniquely African cats.

Well, one of the three (the sand cat) is also found in Arabia and desert regions of southwestern and central Asia, but it should be considered here since it lives exclusively in deserts, and most of us immediately think of the Sahara when we hear that word.

Actually, when we get to the sand cat, you might be surprised at how much life the Sahara Desert contains.

I am a science blogger at FlightToWonder.com, not a scientist.  This book, therefore, is a paraphrase of things learned while reading all the sources listed in the reference section at the end of this book, particularly those from the Cat Specialist Group and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is the agency responsible for maintaining the Red List of endangered species.

It will be a successful book, if you come away from it as surprised and delighted as I am to discover that there are such beautiful but little-known felines prowling through Africa, from rainforest to desert wadi.

Corvallis, Oregon

February, 2021

Caracal