There was an explosion in the driver's guide circle in Tanzania in the past two days. The star male black serval of Z4z Serengeti finally has two children of his own. They live in the Nanyukie area of Serengeti National Park.
These two rare black servals and their beautiful mother are extremely popular. Lion King Travel Agency guide HASSAN was very lucky to meet these newly born kittens, and the serval mother took good care of them!
The father of these two rare black serval elves is the star serval in the picture below.
Servals are cats that live mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and are slightly larger than domestic cats. They have a vigorous body, a keen hearing, agility, and are very cute. The fur of the general serval is yellow with black spots on it, which is somewhat similar to the fur of a cheetah. As shown below:
black serval is produced due to genetic mutations, genetic mutations cause excessive production of melanin in the body, making the individual's fur appear black. This phenomenon is also called blackening. The serval’s genetic mutation that causes the black coat to appear is generally considered to be detrimental to its own survival. However, in some areas, this genetic mutation can give them some survival advantages. For example, in the high altitude area of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa in Tanzania, researchers have found black servals. Presumably, this may be because black serval hair can help them maintain body temperature in cold places.
In some countries, some superstitious people think that black cats are "ominous animals" and regard them as evil spirits or evil spirits. Therefore, meeting black cats is usually considered unlucky.
But for wildlife photographers, encountering a black serval is a burst of luck. They are simply black elves in nature. Black servals are very rare in nature, and their distribution positions are relatively concentrated. Wild black servals live in East Africa, and people have only found them in 4 areas.
In 2015, Kenyan photographer Jeremy Gross captured a scene of a serval with a normal body color and a black serval "dating in love" at night. As shown in the figure below:
Blackening occurs in leopards, wolves, giraffes, zebras and other animals. For example, the star small black zebras in the Serengeti and Masai Mara ecosystems at the end of 2019 and early 2020 were also caused by genetic mutations.
Don’t know if this cute blackened zebra is still alive? I haven't heard the news for a long time, I hope I can see it next time I go to Serengeti.
By the way, if you come across a blackened serval in the wild, can you tell it is a serval rather than other cats from its long ears and long legs?
