The serval (leptailurus serval) is a wild cat, naturally living in most of Africa (except Sahara). It is a medium size cat (it can weigh up to 20kg) and has slender body with a long neck and a rather small head with big ears and long legs. Serval is a cat of an amazing beauty. All of the fur has black spots, background is usually golden - yellow or brown - yellow, though there are some rare individuals with silver or black background.

It's not a domestic cat. It has well developed hunting instincts. It has adapted to live in a large area and is an extremely mobile cat - it can travel up to several kilometers during the hunt and can jump upwards up to 3 meters. It hunts in tall African savannah grass, marshlands, mountainous places and forests. Serval eats various birds, rabbits, mice and other rodents, small marsh and water animals like fish, frogs, various insects, reptiles, though sometimes they can even hunt a small antelope. Compared to other cats, which hunt down only 10 to 20% of their chosen prey, serval is a very effective hunter, hunting down up to 60% of his prey, and it is best hunter in all Africa.

Leopards and other big cats are dangerous to serval. But human is the most dangerous creature to serval, because it has long been hunted for its beautiful fur.
Now serval is being protected by international convetions, committed to save endangered species, market is strictly controlled, special licenses are needed to transport and keep these animals.

Serval is not a domestic animal, therefore it is not suitable for living in houses because of its very active character. Its sharp claws and teeth can accidentally cause serious injuries.

With serval's basis, cross-breeding it with a domestic cat and aiming to use all of serval's good qualities and to remove the bad ones, after long experiments a new exotic breed was finally created in USA new  exotic-looking  domestic breed and was named Savannah.