This photo shows the relative sizes of a domestic cat (a Poljun, derived from Bengal and Chausie crosses) and the caracal (Marco, a very tame, captive-bred caracal)

The 1998 Moscow Zoo Caracat

In 1998, I Kusminych and A Pawlowa reported a caracal/domestic hybrid cat at Moscow Zoo ("Ein Bastard von Karakal Hauskatze im Moskauer Zoo" in Der Zoologische Garten Vol. 68, No. 4 (1998)). This article was printed only in German and I have no translated information. Though this sounds a surprising hybrid, domestic cats are crossed with Servals in captivity and the Serval and Caracal are interfertile. A zoo is an artificial environment which would have contributed to this unlikely mating.

The Savannah gives an indication of problems breeders would face should they choose to pursue a caracal hybrid breed. There was apparently an attempt at a caracal x domestic hybrid; a male caracal was housed with a female Snowshoe, but the pair failed to mate (Nikki Matthens, Wild Talk). To regard a domestic cat as a mate, the caracal would have to be raised with domestic cats. The lack of interest in "Caracats" seemed related to the current trend for breeding wild-looking striped and spotted cats; the caracal is more reminiscent of a large Abyssinian with long black ear tufts. Hypothetical caracats and Caracal/Abyssinian crosses were discussed on the Newbreedcats Yahoogroup in November 2003.

The 2005 American Caracat

Details of Joy Geisinger’s caracal x domestic hybrids (Caracats) were published in TICA Trend (June-July 2008) and also in Feline Conservation Federation Journal, Volume 52, Issue 4, July/August 2008. Following Joy Geisinger’s death in 2008, Mike Friese (Feline Conservation Federation) provided further information on the hybrids that he received from Geisinger.

The Caracat is a hybrid of Caracal x Abyssinian domestic with an even-toned coat without spots, stripes, or rosettes. F1 Caracats reach 25- 30 pounds and stand 12" – 14" at the shoulder, and resemble a cougar with tufted ears and dark facial markings with some barred markings on the legs and belly. The tail length is not stated (caracals have short tails). F2 Caracats (75% Abyssinian, 25% Caracal) reach 20 - 25 pounds, stand 10" – 12" at the shoulder, and still resemble a miniature cougar, but have a more domestic temperament than the F1 Caracats.

In 2005 a male Caracal kitten, Mandela was raised with 2 female Abyssinian kittens, Bonnie and Beverly. In May 2007, 8 lb Beverly and 50 lb Mandela produced Hillary and another kitten, the first deliberately bred Caracats (accidental hybrids had been born in Germany to a male domestic and a female caracal). The other kitten died at birth though an F1 male called Jude was born in a subsequent litter (October 2007) along with F1 kittens Jennifer and Monica. Geisinger intended to breed Hillary to an Abyssinian sire called Romeo when Hillary matured in 2008. The caracal male, Mandela, was rehomed in February 2008 to a breeder of Caracal x Chausie hybrids. These F1 Caracats inherited the caracal’s hissy, nervous disposition, destructive tendencies and a screeching call. The fact only one F1 male was born (or survived) is also in accordance with Haldane's Rule - F1 males are either sterile or non-existent.

F2 Caracats with ear tufts and a "moustache" would probably be the best-looking generation since F3 hybrids (much higher percentage of Abyssinian) would resemble overgrown Abyssinian cats. F2 kittens were priced at $8000 (fertile females) and $4000 (infertile males). The males were expected to be infertile for up to 5 generations. The hybrid males were to be sold as neutered, declawed pets while the females would be sold with breeding rights on the basis they would be bred only to registered Abyssinian males. Geisinger wrote that the F2 females would quickly earn back the $8000 price with their first F3 litter - suggesting a commercial enterprise rather than a cat-fancying one.

Joy Geisinger’s husband greatly hated Mandela, the Caracal stud, and the feeling was apparently mutual. Mandela was an exceptionally gentle Caracal, who loved "lap-time" with Joy, and the new owners planned to breed him to a Chausie to maintain the larger size and exotic look (this would also be a safer match than a petite Abyssinian female). Geisinger considered this is a step backwards, as the offspring would be greater than 50% wild cat and not very domesticated. However, the Chausie breed is several generations down the line and Geisinger’s fear would be unfounded if a later generation Chausie is used; some Chausies also have a short tail. She had also claimed that Chausies, Savannahs and Bengals used any domestic female that will tolerate a wild male; something only true of backyard breeders mass-producing unregistered versions of those breeds.

TICA granted experimental breed status for the Caracat and, although it would take years, Geisinger aimed to give the Caracat the same status as the Savannah. This would mean moving beyond the F2s, something she had not previously wanted to do because of the possible loss of caracal looks, however, it is not possible to have a breed comprising F2 cats alone. She knew the F1s would be purchased as fast as she could produce them, but she noted that the breeding process was difficult for the Abyssinian females. The greater size of the caracal, however gentle, meant a mating neck-grip could be lethal to the much smaller domestic female and one of the females had spent around 30 hours in labour because of the size of the hybrid kittens. On May 3rd, 2008, Geisinger wrote to Mike Friese that the F2 generation would be the most marketable Caracats and that she had an Abyssinian stud, Romeo, lined up to breed with her 3 F1 Caracats. She hoped Romeo would pass on his sweet disposition to the F2 offspring. She was certain she would not be able to keep up with the demand for F2 kittens in spite of having 3 F1 Caracat females. The oldest F1 Caracat, Hillary, had already come into season by May 2008 (10.5 months old), but was not bred because she was not fully grown. Monica and Jennifer were not due to come into season until the late summer/early autumn of 2008. Neither Bonnie nor Beverly became pregnant before Mandela left so there were no further F1 kittens. Romeo had attempted to mate Hillary, but his was considerably shorter than Hillary and was unable to manage the neck-hold and intromission at the same time. The only F1 male Caracat Geisinger was able to produce was Barnabus Jude.

In Europe, Poespoes Cattery, planned to acquire one or two F2 females (which would be DNA tested) who will also be backcrossed to a caracal male; this would give F1 females that have a higher percentage of caracal than an F1 caracal/domestic cross and would help establish generations beyond F2 with the desired look. Before this happened, Geisinger died and it was not known what would happen to her caracal/Abyssinian hybrids, nor was there further news of the caracal/Chausie hybrids.

The caracat faces the same gestational mismatch issues found in serval hybrids. The caracal gestation period is 73 days while the Abyssinian gestation period is 63 days. This means hybrids borne by a domestic female will be premature in terms of the caracal. Hence it made sense that an existing Savannah breeder would have the experience and facilities to save the breed following Geisinger's death. Caracats are now bred by Allison Navarro of Jewels of the Nile Savannahs & Caracats. By 2011, there were 6 breeding female crosses and a proven male. The breed is developing slowly with further hybrid offspring expected during 2013.

The 2010 German-Austrian Caracat Project

The Caracat provoked a lot of controversy when a German-Austrian breeding project planned to mate a tame male caracal with Maine Coon females to create a domestic breed that resembled the caracal. Authorities there were concerned this would violate subsection 11b of the Animal Welfare Act and there were also a lot of alarmist stories about taking hybrid kittens from the mother at birth and hand-reared in order to tame them. Other alarmist stories spoke of caesarean sections, tube-feeding and rearing kittens in incubators, all for the sake of profit. Detractors said the F1 hybrids would not use litter-trays and when they reached sexual maturity they would escape, roam or become aggressive.

In 2010, a German-Austrian breeding project was announced, including the establishment of the "International Foundation for Wild and Hybrid Cats" with their own breed standards and breeding guidelines by the breeders. However the project was discontinued and at the end of 2014 all information was removed from the websites of those intending to breed. IFWHC stated that even F1 Caracats adapted well to living in flats.

IFWHC decided to use only the absolute largest Maine Coons, those of "El Dorado" in Austria. Caracals measure about 65 cm length and 45cm shoulder height. The largest of the El Dorado tomcats were 65 cm in length and 45 cm shoulder height and could weigh up to 13 kg. The size of the Maine coon also allowed a long enough gestation to prevent unwanted premature births.

The co-founder of this project was Patrick Ruehl who owned one of the first tame caracals in Germany. He felt that Caracals and Servals were already semi-domesticated, having lived with some indigenous peoples without compulsion, sometimes as pets and sometimes as hunting animals. He had 2 caracal studs available for breeding with domestic cats and said that his caracal stud happily coexisted with a harem of Maine Coon females (and had also lived with a Savannah stud as a “coalition”). Wild caracals will also live in groups or “brotherhoods.”

Ruehl considered the larger Maine Coon a more suitable domestic cat partner compared to the Abyssinian female used in the USA, but would not comment on potential dangers to female domestic cats from the male’s larger canines as he did not want others (by which he seemed to mean backyard breeders and those who put profit before cat welfare) to copy him and throw random domestic females in with less well socialised caracal males in the hope that some of the females survived the mating. Such things had happened in Savannah breeding. He noted that cats, including caracals, learn to bite gently through play and that domestic cat females often solicit and allow mating without any need for the male to grip their necks. This was another reason he considered the Maine Coon more suitable - its longer fur provided additional protection.

He was already an experienced Savannah breeder. Rather than mate a domestic cat to a male serval he preferred to mate the larger F2 Savannahs females because they were larger and they also more easily carried F1 hybrid kittens to about 75 days, about 10 days longer than a female domestic cat, giving the F1 kittens a better start. This more reliably introduced fresh serval genes.

IFWHC drew up a draft Caracat Standard. It called for a large to very large body. In males the ideal shoulder height is 40 - 45 cm, but females were smaller. The body should be long and muscular, especially the hindquarters, which should be strong and pronounced. The ribcage should be broad and the legs should be strong and muscular. The paws should be large with tufts of fur. The tail should be full length, ideally as long as the back from shoulder to root of tail.

The head was required to be large and massive with straight contours, it should be longer than it is wide and have high cheekbones. The nose should be medium-long and the profile curved. The muzzle should be wide, massive and angular. The chin should be massive, pronounced and run in a line with upper lip and nose i.e. it should be blunt. The ears were to be very large, like those of a caracal, with a broad base and run to a point. They should be upright and set high on the head and the distance between the ears was to be no more than the width of a single ear base. The standard required hair furnishings in the ears, as well as extremely pronounced tufts at the tips like the caracal.

The eyes were to be large, oval, set far apart and slightly slanted. At that stage the eye colour would be unrelated to the coat colour. Because the Maine Coon is a long-hair, the Caracat coat could be short-haired or semi-long-haired and these two lengths would be distinct. The F1 generation would all be short-haired, but the F2 generation would also produce semi-long-hair. There was no mention of standardising on a short coat later in breed development.

According to that draft standard, existing F1 Caracats (which referred to the American caracal-Abyssinian hybrids since the Russian Caracats had not yet been developed) had a very balanced, calm nature. They like being around people, but were unobtrusive. They were also very sociable and could be trained. IFWHC’s standard required the same temperament.

The 2014 Russian Caracat

After the death of the original breeder in the USA, the Caracat might have been lost. Below is adapted from on a translation of Karaketov - a new breed of cat to the ICU. The curator of this breeding program is Svetlana Ponomareva

The first successful interbreeding of a domesticated caracal cat was with an Abyssinian cat in America. Second generation (F2) hybrids were obtained and were healthy, beautiful and the females were fertile. Unfortunately life dealt a blow to the breeding programme when the breeder died and her cats were rehomed. Work on the breed stopped. The rebirth of the Caracat began not in sunny Africa, but in snowy Russia. In the city of Ivanovo, a novice breeder Irina Nazarova was eager to begin breeding small wild cats and their hybrids. Irina was lucky from the start because her young caracal male was agreeable to mating with domestic cats. Young, healthy, short-haired brides of a large size were organised for him.

Irina picked suitable partners for mating with caracals from several breeds of domestic cats: Serengeti, Abyssinian, Egyptian Mau and Oriental. These laid down the desired traits - large ears, long muzzles and most importantly - known histories of breed health and fertility. Then things began to heat up! After a long wait, the first F1 litter (one male, one female) was born in July 2014 from caracal matings with Serengeti and the Abyssinian females. A further litter was born in 2015. The first goal is to create a diverse gene pool from different mothers in order to avoid excessive inbreeding later in the programme. The F1 hybrids grew to a large size, twice the size of house cats. They did not show any health problems. They were strong, sociable and wild-looking. What was surpring was that the 50% of wild caracal genes produced a very stable appearance greatly resembling the Caracal. By September 2015, 4 F1 litters had been born and an F2 litter was expected. All the kittens have been healthy and have good temperaments. Birth weights average 120 g and the weight at 6 months was 8 kg (the fully adult weight is likely to be 11 - 13 kg / 25 - 30 lbs).

Physically, Caracats are large (9-12 kg), tall and strong-looking. They have a long muzzle with a wide nose, expressive eyes and their ears are huge and coloured black on the outside, with tassels at the tips; typical of caracals and F1 Caracats. The body is brownish-red, without markings on the back and sides, but with spotted markings on on the chest, belly and inside of the legs (the American Caracats did not have these markings because the F1 cats came from an Abyssinian female, the Russian Caracats inherit these markings from their domestic mothers). Breeders want to preserve these features in later generations by breeding them to Abyssinian cats. The second (F2) generation will be crossed with Abyssinian cats to save the warmth and colour of ticking. Some F2 hybrids will also be selected for backcrossing to the Caracal and fixing the Caracal features such as ear tassels and facial markings.

Caracat kittens reach the standard size of the average domestic cats in just 65-72 days. By one month old, their Caracal genes come into play and they quickly increase in size. This growth spurt is supported by feeding the kittens with quails and raw chicken complemented by dry cat food. They receive standard feline vaccinations. Breeders have no experience of a tendency to infections in Caracats. They probably inherit strong immune systems from their caracal parent. Nevertheless, they receive normal feline vaccinations and the inactivated rabies vaccine. They have shown no adverse effects to vaccination. Properly raised F1 kittens are very sociable and lack aggression. They grow up with their mothers and inherit the domestic cat's behaviour and social skills. Kittens are taught from an early age to be gentle with people so it is not necessary to declaw them. Just like domestic cats, these hybrids like to scratch things so they need toys and scratching posts so they don't spoil your furniture. Regardless of sex, the kittens are affectionate and friendly and are patient with children. Families that have young F1 Caracats are very satisfied and happy with their pets.

The breed is already registered with the USA-based where it is in the stage of preliminary recognition; this allows the official registration of foundation animals and their offspring. In September 2015, a new breed standard was written for the Russian ICU Association(International Cat Union). They were first presented to the world on the internet forum Breeders Cat Club (in Russian), and on the Facebook page of Irina Nazarova on Facebook and on Russian television. The first Russian breeding cattery, Kataleya, is working actively with the new breed and makes regular visits to exhibitions to promote this new breed. TThere is large demand for the kittens and a lot of interset from breeders who want to work on the Caracat breeding programme.

Like all new breeds, the Caracat has attracted attention and created a lot of discussion, both positive and negative. To date, most of the factual information has only been available in the Russian language. I am grateful to Irina for permitting to use her information and photos to make the information available in English.

In June 2015, the Russian journal "Friend for Cat-Lovers" published an article about the breed.

In 2016, silver Caracats were born, and in 2017 red Caracats were also born.