Sunday 15 May 2015


An update on the Serval today, and unfortunately he is not doing well.  He was taken into a larger animal facility yesterday and had another operation, during which his heart stopped beating and a tense ten minutes followed during which an injection was given to stimulate his heart.  This worked, and he was returned to the facilities here later in the afternoon.  He is resting again now, but the operation showed that his injuries are more severe than first thought, and the initial dog attack may have taken place some days ago.  All this means his condition is worse than we guessed, and all fingers are again crossed hoping for his speedy recovery.

Wild Dog Conservation Malawi (CM) and Lilongwe Wildlife Centre (LWT) worked together to conduct a rehabilitation and reintroduction project of Serval cats (Leptailurus serval) in Kasungu National Park in 2013.

Two servals kittens were rescued from poachers and rehabilitated at LWC that year. WDCM purchased some GPS collars to fit to the servals to conduct a field research project to assess survival rates and spatial behavior of the servals post release. On Friday 6th June 2014 the LWT and WDCM team successfully put the GPS collars on both servals ready for release. Both animals were caught early morning and placed in holding crates. They were then transported to the vet clinic at LWT where they were sedated by the LWT vets. Once sedated the vets gave them a full health check and we then tested and fitted the collars.  They were released shortly after wards.

We have a serval cat with us at the moment, named Savannah.  He joined us on 30 November 2015, and this is his picture at that time:

Savannah, Serval cat, 30 November 2015

He was confiscated by a local man from some children who were taunting it, and brought to us. We don’t know exactly what had happened to him before that, but it is likely that his mother would have been shot for bush meat and her coat sold. When, while Savannah was taken for the pet trade. When Savannah arrived he was in a very weakened state and severely malnourished, but took to solid food immediately.  Over the past 6 months Savannah has been growing fast – so fast that he is barely recognizable as the tiny kitten that arrived at the Centre. He is still very young and playful, so we have been giving him lots of enrichment to keep him stimulated such as hiding his food, which he loves to search for, along with plenty of branches full of leaves and grass balls with catnip. Human contact is kept to an absolute minimum so that he does not become humanized, but he is also being carefully observed.  The enrichment measures are fun for him now, but more importantly promoting natural foraging and avoiding human contact are key steps in maintaining and encouraging his wild nature so that he can be released back into the wild in time.

Savannah, Serval cat, February 2016