Who has hunted for the small cats of Africa?

[Green Chile]

I'm thinking of the serval and caracal primarily, although there is a smaller wild cat. Did you take it by chance or did you target it with dogs or what was your approach to it? They are taken randomly of course but I would like to target them more specifically.

Share some photos and taxidermy of what you have taken.

 

[mdwest]

Calling @AZDAVE …

 

[BRICKBURN]

Chased multiple Caracal with dogs. Being in on the chase is much more fun than just showing up at the tree and shooting one.
I bow hunted mine and that made the dog handler nervous. I think his dogs had taken a licking from a wounded cat because of poor shot placement.
When mine dropped from the tree dead from a heart shot the handlers relieved smile was going to break his face.
(Can't find the photos at the moment) I made a nice rug mount.

Serval certainly look like an interesting and entertaining hunt.

Wild Cat, not so much.

Good luck.

 

[slam8031]

I hunted caracal by night calling and driving from spot to spot in the Limpopo. I hunted a serval in the free state by setting up and calling along fence lines at night. Also while in Namibia saw a huge caracal stalking a steenbok in the daytime which was happenstance. In both of the night trips we were targeting cats in cat areas and I was willing to shoot either animal.

 

[slam8031]

The free state hunt had low cattle fences that reminded me of quail hunting habitat in South Carolina. I think that greatly increased our opportunity.

 

[Green Chile]

Thanks for the responses. The little wild cat doesn't interest me as much from a taxidermy perspective. It looks like someone's pet although they are little ninja killers. The serval and caracal are world class athletes.

 

[Sarg]

I would love a Big Tom Serval, seem to have had bad luck on them in a couple of countries, we don’t have many in the part of Limpopo I was in & missed a big one spotlighting in Zimbabwe & with clients in Zim we had two Germans who wouldn’t shoot a big Tom Serval while we were hunting Reed Buck, broke my heart.

Had better luck in seeing & shooting Caracal, one of our neighbors got this Monster & the tracker is not a midget !

Looks like a short tailed Mt Lion ?

My biggest one & unfortunately still in the freezer waiting, would love to see some photos of rugs please ?

 

[Green Chile]

I would love to see any taxidermy of the small cats but particularly any with activity or jumping.

 

[Betterinthebush]

I would love to see any taxidermy of the small cats but particularly any with activity or jumping.

I seems you and I are on similar paths. If I catch my leopard in May, Im continuing the hunt south into SA with Adrian to run another pack of dogs for caracal and serval.

 

[Green Chile]

My next attempt on leopard is in ‘27 but I might make a late season run this year for the little cats and more T10 I don’t have yet.