By BELINDA-JANE DAVIS
March 12, 2015
Nia the serval at Hunter Valley Zoo and, above right. Main picture: Peter Stoop
THEY are the African wild cats with massive ears and they can jump three metres into the air.
And for the first time in history two servals are calling Nulkaba home.
Hunter Valley Zoo has acquired Nia and Amiri from Melbourne Zoo, and it hopes the pair will become parents to baby servals within 18months – that is if the pair like each other, and don’t begin their relationship with a brawl.
Carnivore keeper Danielle Rae said Nia was “calmer”, “more relaxed” than her male counterpart, and was eating out of her hand.
“She is very curious and likes to watch the birds if they are walking past ... Amiri is the more aggressive of the two and is wary and more likely to take a few swipes at you if you,” she said.
Ms Rae has to be “very particular” about the way the pair are introduced because servals are a solitary animal in the wild.
She has been rotating them in their purpose-built enclosure for days with Nia “getting to know her new home” by day, and Amiri exploring it at night.
Ms Rae said the initial introduction – through the change of scents in the enclosure – helped the pair to become familiar with each other.
They will then be allowed to see each other for the first time through the safety of a divider in the enclosure.
Their arrival comes after more than eight months of paperwork and training.
Servals are considered a danger to native animals because if they escaped into the wild they could easily live in the bush and breed.
The zoo acquired the pair because Melbourne Zoo expanded its big cat enclosures and no longer had room for them.
Ms Rae said a specific enclosure had to be built to cater for their needs, and staff had to learn how to work with the breed at other zoos before they arrived.
Their curious nature has already won over Ms Rae, who described them as a “bigger version of a house cat that is not quite the animal that wants to sit on your lap and have a pat.”
“They have massive ears and a different body structure, compared with a domestic cat,” she said.
“Their legs are longer at the back than the front to help them when they are leaping forward.”
Servals have been bred with domestic cats in other countries like America and are allowed to live in suburban homes. This hybrid breed are called Savannahs.
Australia banned the cats from being imported in 2008, but the Newcastle Herald understands that fifth-generation Savannahs, whose DNA favours the domestic cat, are allowed in the country.
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