Sergio Pitamitz / Biosphoto / AFP
A rare black serval, Leptailurus serval, standing in the grass of Lualenyi Game Reserve. The genes of melanistic animals carry a mutation that creates more dark pigment than light.
The black serval, a rare melanistic variant of the African serval, is intriguing conservationists because it appears in habitats where, at first, its dark color does not seem to offer any advantage.
The animal belongs to the species Leptailurus on the edgea medium-sized wild cat native to Africa. The common serval is known for its long legs, slender body, cheetah-like markings, long neck, and disproportionately large ears.
The black version results from a hitherto unidentified genetic changewhich affects the cells responsible for pigment production. The result is an almost completely black coat, sometimes marked by discreet, almost ghostly spots.
Servals have the longest paws, in proportion to their body, of all felines. They can reach around half a meter in height, run at 64 km/h and jump up to three meters. These are essential characteristics for hunting small mammals, reptiles and amphibians, but also for escaping predators such as leopards, hyenas and African wild dogs.
The ears are another of its weapons, points out. In terms of head size, they are the largest among all felines and have 22 muscles, allowing the animal to rotate them independently up to 180 degrees. This ability helps the serval locate prey hidden in tall grass or even beneath the ground.
Combined with its powerful paws, these adaptations make it one of the most effective hunters among wild cats: while lions and leopards are successful in about a third of attempts, servals manage to capture prey in more than 50% of attacks.
For a long time, it was thought that black servals were mainly associated with dense forested areas above 2,000 meters in elevation, such as the Aberdare Mountains in Kenya or the Ethiopian highlands. In these environments, the dark coat could function as camouflage in the shadows of vegetation.
But the discovery of an unusual number of black servals in the dry grasslands of the TsavoKenya’s largest protected area, has confounded this explanation.
A survey carried out between 2011 and 2016 by the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and Wildlife Works concluded that 47% of serval sightings in that region involved melanistic individuals.
The reason remains unclear. This could be an observation bias, as black animals may be easier to spot in that open landscape. Another hypothesis is simple random genetic fluctuation. There is also the possibility that the mutation is associated with invisible advantages, such as better thermal regulation or greater resistance to disease.
