That incredible photo above was taken by Jan-Lucas de Vos in February last year, showing a caracal spotted in Hout Bay.

Every time one of these elusive cats is seen around Cape Town – usually somewhere in and around Table Mountain – we are reminded of the close proximity in which they live to us.

Because of this, our actions have a significant effect on the local population, and the latest threat to the caracal’s survival comes in the form of rat poison.

It also kills owls, and other birds and animals all too frequently, in case you can’t muster the energy to care about caracals.

Here’s News24 with more on that study:

Dr Laurel Serieys, a scientist who specialises in studying the city’s caracals, sampled the livers of 24 cats.

Serieys [below] is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cape Town’s Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa and coordinator of the Urban Caracal Project.

Her team tested a variety of species for common rat poisons and found widespread exposure across all species, but caracals were the worst affected with 92% exposed…

“So the results were not surprising. But when you stack it on top of all the other threats to caracals in the Cape Peninsula, then it is concerning to see such high exposure rates to this particular pesticide,” she told News24.

Serieys linked at least two deaths directly to rat poison, but said even though the cats may not die instantly there are many insidious effects on their health.

The poison can slowly compromise their immune systems and reproductive health over time, ultimately leading to population decline.

As with any ecosystem, the presence of poisons has a knock-on effect, too. Animals further down the food chain may be affected, and a declining caracal population also throws an already-sensitive ecosystem out of balance.

Remember that the Cape Floral Kingdom was just named a hotspot for plant extinction, and is already under immense strain from the likes of alien vegetation and climate change.

Let’s hear from Serieys herself:

Tragically, Serieys says that the long-term outlook for the survival of these urban caracals does not look good:

“In the past month, we’ve documented five deaths for caracals just within the Cape Peninsula and what’s alarming about this is that we estimate that the population size is only about 50 caracals in the entirety of the Cape Peninsula… and so assessing the impact to the population is not trivial, when you’re looking at so many dead caracals piling up in such a short time frame.”

It’s tough to prevent caracal deaths on our roads, but it’s surely not too much to ask that those making use of rat poison think again.

There are other options available (here’s one), and plenty of tips online about alternative, less harmful approaches to the problem.

For more info on the Urban Caracal Project and what they do, check out their site.

[source:news24]