Urban Caracal Project, Cape Town, South Africa

19/08/2026

🚨 NEW paper just out! Extensive wildlife rat poison exposure in the greater Cape Town area revealed by caracals.

The study is the largest ecotoxicological assessment of a terrestrial carnivore conducted to date in the Global South. Read the full paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749126012297?via%3Dihub

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1140497

Rat poisons were detected in 78% of 102 Cape Town caracals, revealing widespread contamination of the urban food web. Researchers call for tighter South African controls on anticoagulant rodenticides, including restricted retail sales, purchase limits, traceable distribution and limited use only wit...

23/07/2026

On her way to the Enchanted Forest…

This female caracal and her kitten were spotted in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens recently. It seems the Gardens are a safe haven for wildlife, where caracal mothers often bring their kittens once they’re a bit bigger and more mobile. There are no dogs, plenty of places to hide, and lots of Guinea fowl, Egyptian geese and mice to snack on!

Remember: if you see a caracal, put dogs on leads and keep your distance so as not to disturb him/her.

Thanks to Anna Fielding Anna Fielding for reporting this lovely sighting 🎥

20/07/2026

What do you see in your headlights? ⚡️

If it’s a reflective silhouette, you’re in caracal territory 🐱✨

These artworks mark known crossing points: slow down, stay alert, and spread the word.

Let’s keep Cape Town wild.



03/07/2026

Caracal spotted on Chapman’s Peak Drive! ⛰️🌊

We’ve received a sighting along this scenic coastal route. Caracals cross the road to forage along the cliffs for dassies (rock hyrax) and seabirds.

Please spread the word to drive carefully along this road! And please report your caracal sightings to our website form: http://www.urbancaracal.org/report-sightings-roadkill

🎥 Rebecca Levy

25/06/2026

⚠️☠️ OU KAAPSE WEG

A commuting route for drivers; a death trap for wildlife! ☠️⚠️

This mountain pass cuts straight through the Table Mountain National Park. 🌿 Despite having wildlife habitat on both sides, it has no fencing. It has no underpasses or overpasses for animals. There is very limited signage and speed limits are not enforced.

This road is by far the worst for caracal car collisions. We have retrieved 16 caracal mortalities there since 2015, with many more unreported. Just this weekend, a caracal kitten was mowed down.

If you drive this route - SLOW DOWN and LOOK OUT for wildlife crossing the road. Let’s do what we can to keep Cape Town wild. 🙌

23/06/2026

There’s a caracal in my kitchen!

We’ve had a few reports of young caracals wandering into people’s homes recently. This is not unheard of! Back in 2018, one of our monitored cats, TMC30 Beskuitjie, found herself in a kitchen in Durbanville, near Tygerberg Reserve.

While it may sound unbelievable that a caracal wandered inside someone’s house seemingly very confused, it’s actually not super uncommon for young wild cats to get “lost” in urban areas. As curious young individuals looking to “move out on their own”, they sometimes catch themselves in very awkward situations! Typically, they are wandering around learning about their environment, and where is safe, and unsafe, to be, and before they know it, someone has spotted them or the sun has come up! Their response, like most other cats, is just to hunker down and hope that no one notices them!

Remember, if you come across a caracal in any situation, stay quiet and calm and give it space to minimise any disturbance. If the caracal is inside a building, open the doors and windows and let him/her leave of their own accord.

Photos: Helena Willicott and anonymous

23/06/2026

Lucky sighting! 😸 spotted these two caracals in Cape Point recently! Remember to report your caracal sightings to our website: urbancaracal.org and let us know about any wildlife roadkill ASAP on +27 79 837 8814 📲

07/06/2026

03/06/2026

We have had several reports of seeing multiple caracals recently. It seems that at this time of year, many juvenile caracals are tagging along with their mothers.

Caracal kittens spend their first few weeks hidden in a safe den. We found that 1 - 3 primary dens are used while kittens are very small. Once the kittens grow up a little, short-term auxiliary dens are used, and den sites can change quite often. Now that this year’s kittens are bigger, they are becoming more visible as they follow mom around her territory while learning to hunt and avoid threats.

If you see a young caracal on its own, its mother is likely nearby. Remember to respect wildlife. Do not disturb the kitten and maintain and distance of at least 25m.

Read more about caracal denning and maternal behaviour here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42991-024-00429-z

📸 Anya Adendorff (2026)

26/05/2026

Did you know that city growth is quietly threatening the Cape Peninsula’s caracals? 🏙️ In our latest scientific paper we looked at the population genetics of caracals living in the Cape Peninsula and around Cape Town, as well as in the Central Karoo and Namaqualand.

As Cape Town has expanded, these wild cats’ populations have become cut off from one another by Cape Town’s urban matrix. The result? The genetic diversity across multiple metrics (heterozygosity and allelic richness shown here) in Cape Peninsula caracals is lower than that observed in populations outside of Cape Town and in the Greater Cape Town region. 🧬 Relatedness among the Cape Peninsula’s caracals is also twice as high as seen in the other populations (➡️ swipe to see graph). The isolated Cape Peninsula population is becoming more vulnerable, less resilient, and less able to adapt to future threats.

Importantly, this has happened quickly. Cities don’t need thousands of years to impact wildlife - the genetic effects of Cape Town’s urban sprawl are already detectable today.

Caracals are one of Africa’s most adaptable carnivores, yet even they are struggling to cope with the pace of urban expansion. It’s a reminder that the animals living alongside us in and around our cities need us to think carefully about how we grow and develop.
Solutions exist: wildlife-friendly road crossings, green corridors, and conservation planning that accounts for animal movement. These measures take time to implement but awareness is the first step.

Read the full paper here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10592-026-01776-9 📑

📸 Michael McSweeney