They are wild, exotic and ideally large. Through a rediscovery in a household in which a serval and a house cat lived, about 35 years ago in America, a serval living in the household occupied the house cat, from which the 1st branch generation of the Savannah cat emerged. This is, in short, the origin story of the Savannah cat.
The origin of the breed name Savannah cat comes from the living environment of the serval, in the African savannah.
For more than 25 years, foreign cat breeds were crossed into the Savannah cat by means of outcross procedures, since the first 4 branch generations of the Savannah cats were mostly not fertile. The first purebred Savannah cats of the 5th branch generation have only been around since 2007.
Man has made use of the excellent hunting qualities of the serval and cheetah for several millennia. The Sumerians around 3000 B.C. Cheetahs and servals were tamed and trained for hunting.
from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to the Cape of Good Hope, further in South Asia from the Arabian Peninsula to India. However, the stocks have declined sharply throughout the distribution area and have even been completely eradicated in some places, such as in India. Since the thin fur of the big cats was not very suitable for fashionable processing, the hunting pressure on the fast cat was never particularly great.
History of the origin of the Savannah cat – Records on clay tablets and bone finds in the area that was once inhabited show that the rulers of the Near Eastern tribes kept cheetahs and servals and trained them to hunt like hunting dogs.
The big cats were caught, which took several months, as cheetahs and servals were not so easy to lure into a trap. Taming a cheetah and serval took about 3 months.
During this time the animals were kept in stables. Before a hunting party set off, scouts were sent out to track down the game. When they returned, big cats were taken out of the stables, leashed and hooded over their heads to prevent the animals from becoming restless.
The big cats were transported on an additional cart that drove behind the noble hunting party. When the wild animals came into sight, the hoods and leashes were taken from the spotted big cats and the hunt began.
Cheetahs did not reproduce in captivity, unlike servals, so it was necessary to keep catching new cheetahs.
The servals, on the other hand, mated without any problems in the palace, occasionally with house cats. In order to tame the big cats as cuddly cats, the kittens were separated from their mothers quite early, usually when they opened their eyes. They were then hand-reared on goat’s milk, and this is still continued today by predator experts like Kevin Richardson of old.
Man has made use of the excellent hunting qualities of the serval and cheetah for several millennia. The Sumerians around 3000 B.C. Cheetahs and servals were tamed and trained for hunting.
The legendary Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, Cleopatra and many more. even made extensive trips inland to observe the large impressive cats in the wild and also kept a few cheetahs and servals in her palace herself.
Many normal cats also lived in the palace, although it happened from time to time that a serval occupied a cat. So it happened that in history Savannah cats were born again and again. – Origin story of the Savannah cat
Only the rich could afford these exotic housemates. Cheetahs, serval catchers and traders were held in high esteem because only one of the chosen few could succeed in capturing and taming cheetahs, so the Egyptian people mistakenly whispered.
Origin story of the Savannah cat – But not only the Sumerians and the ancient Egyptians had a fondness for the beautiful cats. In Persia and India, too, the large spotted cat roamed the palaces of the rulers over the centuries.
The Persian kings were proud of their cheetah and serval keeping, and the Indian Mughal Emperor Akbar is said to have owned several thousand servals and cheetahs around 1580, about which he also had records made. Since more and more supplies were needed, the population of servals and cheetahs in Asia was already declining at that time.
Of course, these charismatic big cats also fascinated the Europeans. Alexander the Great had a fondness for exotic animals and had some servals and cheetahs brought to Europe during his campaigns of conquest.
Empress Poppaea, wife of the Roman ruler Nero, kept a pair of servals, and later also two cheetahs, and always carried them on a leash with her. The villas and country houses of the Roman nobility soon filled with servals and cheetahs. For example, Emperor Leopold I of Austria received hunting cheetahs as a gift from the Turkish Sultan.
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