Zimbabwe Seven

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Feb 08 2008 | By: admin

What is the status of serval in Zimbabwe?
Why did the Tikki Hywood Trust start a serval breeding and release program?

Dear Readers,
These are two questions that we are commonly asked by people who hear about the Trust’s work.
The true status of serval population in Zimbabwe has not been properly documented, but we can confidently state that they now only exist on protected reserves and in National Parks. These are cats that once enjoyed a wide distribution throughout the country and their numbers are now dwindling rapidly. The Trust aims to rectify that situation by breeding and releasing animals back to suitable habitats with post-release monitoring so that we can learn more about these elusive cats. We work closely with Department of National Parks & Wildlife Management in this regard as we also aim to address the misconception that these cats are stock raiders and problem animals as they are often mistaken for leopards or cheetahs.

To answer the second question, this is a brief description on how it all started:

In April 2000 the Tikki Hywood Trust received two orphan servals, their mother had been poached and they were picked up by farm workers in the Shamva area (farming area located near a town). The farm owners then contacted the SPCA, which suggested that they be brought to us. The kittens arrived at our sanctuary at around two days old.

These two kittens, Muffet (female) and Tigger (male) were successfully hand raised by Lisa Hywood with a formula that she developed.

In the same year the Trust also received another two kittens, male and female, and these were raised alongside the first two. Later on a relocated adult male was brought to the Trust to save him from being destroyed as a problem animal. With these five cats, the serval breeding project was born.

Here are some figures of how many serval the Tikki Hywood Trust has dealt with as of January 2008:

Number of serval received by the Trust as of January 2008: 11 (5 females, 6 males)

Number of serval released as of January 2008: 16 (7 females, 9 males)

Number of serval born in the breeding program as of January 2008: 27 ( 9 females, 11 males, 7 unknown)

We have also posted brief histories and matings of all the serval that have passed through the program under the category “Serval”. Please have a look and give us your comments or questions!

All the serval in our program are destined for release unless an animal comes to us either in its last stage of life or severely debilitated and totally unable to fend for itself in the wild. Under no circumstance do we capture from the wild to augment our breeding stock. The welfare of each animal is utmost in our minds through every decision and sometimes they are hard ones. Ultimately, we aim to show these animals the love and respect that they deserve and what better way to express it as to give them freedom!

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