Serval (Leptailurus serval) Fact Sheet: Population & Conservation Status

Relatively abundant and widespread in Africa (Breitenmoser-Wursten et al 2008)

• No global population estimates

Population north of Sahara

• Regionally Critically Endangered (from Breitenmoser-Wursten et al 2008)
  • <250 mature individuals in a single isolated population

IUCN Status

• Least Concern (2014 assessment) (Thiel 2015, amended 2019)
  • Population trend is stable
• Historical listing
  • 2002 - Least Concern
  • 1996 - Lower Risk/Least Concern

CITES Status

• Appendix II (UNEP 2019)

U.S. Endangered Species Act (from Breitenmoser-Wursten et al 2008)

• Barbary serval (subspecies) listed
  • Found only in southern Algeria

Management actions (from Breitenmoser-Wursten et al 2008)

• Servals are not protected over much of its range
• Hunting prohibited in some areas
  • Algeria, Botswana, Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, and the Cape Province of South Africa
• A key area for conservation efforts
  • Odzala National Park (Congo Republic) where its serval population is the only protected one in Gabon-Congo savanna region

Primary threats

• Wetland habitat loss and degradation (Breitenmoser-Wursten et al 2008)

Secondary threats (from Breitenmoser-Wursten et al 2008)

• Degradation of grasslands
• Driven by annual burning followed by overgrazing
• Domestic trade of serval pelts
• Often for tourists
• Serval skins may be sold as young leopard (Panthera pardus) or cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)
• In Nigeria, pelts are commonly traded; among the most often seen animal pelts
• Ceremonial usage and use in traditional medicine is declining (Breitenmoser-Wursten et al 2008; Nowell & Jackson 1996)
• Loss of native prey species
• Driven by habitat alteration
• Persecuted by humans
• Targeted in rural areas for supposed ability to kill small livestock (e.g. goats, sheep, and poultry)

Breitenmoser-Wursten et al (2008)
ZIMS (2008)
Nowell & Jackson (1996)
Sunquist & Sunquist (2002)