The black serval (Leptailurus serval) is an unusual, melanistic version of the African serval, a medium-sized wild cat that's native to Africa.
Regular servals are stunning; leggy like a supermodel, spotted like a cheetah, with a long neck and oversized ears.
Black servals take this elegance to new heights. They owe their unique colouration to an as-yet-unidentified blip in their genetic code, which affects their pigment-producing cells. Black servals have jet black coats, sometimes with faint ‘ghost’ spots.
Melanistic (all-black) servals are extremely rare in the wild and are most often spotted at high altitudes – like Kenya's Aberdare highlands – where the cooler, misty climate seems to favour their darker coats. - Photo credit: Getty
They cut a striking silhouette. Servals have the longest legs relative to the body size of any cat. Standing at around half a metre tall (1.6ft), they can run at speeds of 40 miles per hour (64km/h) and leap up to 3m (9.8ft) high.
