Context: Recently, the National Board for Wildlife and Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change included the caracal in the list of critically endangered species as part of its Endangered Species Recovery Programme.  

About Caracal

• They are slender, medium-sized wild cats.
• The iconic ears give the animal its name caracal,  which comes from the Turkish word ‘karakulak’, meaning black ears.
• In India, it is called Siya gosh, a Persian name that translates as ‘black ears’.
• A Sanskrit fable exists about a small wild cat named deergha-karn or ‘long-eared’.
• It is characterised by a robust build, long legs, a short face, long tufted ears, and long canine teeth.
• The caracal is an elusive, primarily nocturnal animal.

Habitat

• The caracal is found in several dozen countries across Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia.
• In India, the presence of these cats has been reported from only three states which are Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Major Threats

• Infrastructure projects such as the building of roads lead to the fragmentation of the caracal’s ecology and disruption of its movement.
• The loss of habitat also affects the animal’s prey which includes small ungulates and rodents.
• In recent years, cases have been detected of the animal being captured to be sold as exotic pets.

Conservation Status

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists caracals as a species of ‘least concern’ in its Red List.
• However, in India, these are listed as critically endangered species.

Significance of Current Listing

• The listing of the caracal as critically endangered is expected to bring central funding to conservation efforts.

Historical Context

• The earliest evidence of the caracal in the subcontinent comes from a fossil dating back to the civilisation of the Indus Valley c. 3000-2000 BC, according to a reference in ‘Historical and current extent of occurrence of the Caracal in India’.
• The caracal has traditionally been valued for its litheness and extraordinary ability to catch birds in flight; it was a favourite coursing or hunting animal in medieval India.
• Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1351-88) had siyah-goshdar khana, stables that housed large numbers of coursing caracal.
• It is mentioned in Abul Fazl’s Akbarnama, as a hunting animal in the time of Akbar (1556-1605).
• Descriptions and illustrations of the caracal can be found in medieval texts such as the Anvar-i-Suhayli, Tutinama, Khamsa-e-Nizami, and Shahnameh.
• The East India Company’s Robert Clive is said to have been presented with a caracal after he defeated Siraj-ud-daullah in the Battle of Plassey (1757).