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Caracal
	African golden cat (C. aurata); Caracal (C. caracal)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Subfamily:	Felinae
Genus:	Caracal; Gray, 1843
Type species
	Caracal melanotis; Gray, 1843
Species
	See text

Caracal is a genus in the subfamily Felinae of the family Felidae. It was proposed by John Edward Gray in 1843 who described a skin from the Cape of Good Hope in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London.^[2] Historically, it was considered to be a monotypic genus, consisting of only the type species: the caracal C. caracal.^[1]

Taxonomy

Phylogenetic analysis revealed that caracal, African golden cat (C. aurata) and serval (Leptailurus serval) are genetically closely related forming a genetic lineage that diverged from the common ancestor of the Felidae 7.91 to 4.14 million years ago.^[3] This taxonomic classification is used in the IUCN Red List for the African golden cat.^[4] It is used as a synonym for the serval.^[5]

Genus **Caracal** – Gray, 1843 – two species
Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Caracal	Caracal caracal (Schreber, 1776) Three subspecies Southern caracal (C. c. caracal) (Schreber, 1776) Northern caracal (C. c. nubicus) (Fischer, 1829)^[6] Asiatic caracal (C. c. schmitzi) (Matschie, 1912)		Size: Habitat: Diet:	NT ^[7]
African golden cat	Caracal aurata (Temminck, 1823) Two subspecies C. a. aurata (Temminck, 1827) C. a. celidogaster (Temminck, 1827)		Size: Habitat: Diet:	VU ^[4]

^ ^a ^b Wozencraft, W. C. (2005). "Genus Carcal". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 533. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
^ Gray, J. E. (1843). "The Caracal". List of the specimens of Mammalia in the collection of the British Museum. London: The Trustees of the British Museum. p. 46.
^ Johnson, W. E.; Eizirik, E.; Pecon-Slattery, J.; Murphy, W.J.; Antunes, A.; Teeling, E.; O'Brien, S.J. (2006). "The Late Miocene Radiation of Modern Felidae: A Genetic Assessment". Science. 311 (5757): 73–7. Bibcode:2006Sci...311...73J. doi:10.1126/science.1122277. PMID 16400146. S2CID 41672825.
^ ^a ^b Bahaa-el-din, L.; Mills, D.; Hunter, L. & Henschel, P. (2015). "Caracal aurata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2015: e.T18306A50663128.
^ Thiel, C. (2015). "Leptailurus serval". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2015: e.T11638A50654625. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
^ Fischer, J. B. (1829). "F. caracal Schreb.". Synopsis Mammalium. Stuttgart: J. G. Cottae. p. 210.
^ Avgan, B.; Henschel, P. & Ghoddousi, A. (2016) [errata version of 2016 assessment]. "Caracal caracal". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T3847A102424310. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T3847A50650230.en. Retrieved 15 January 2022.

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