Yes, you read the title correctly: there was a serval cat roaming around the Zagreb area of Croatia for over a month, but today the Croatian media have reported that it has been caught and returned to its owner.
It's been almost a month since the Croatian public has first heard the story of the serval. A wild cat, native to the savannah of Africa was first spotted in Croatia in late November by a fisherman, who saw the cat in the Sava-Odra flood-relief canal, he noticed that the cat was three times the size of a normal house cat so he took his phone out to take a video. On the video, you can see the beautiful animal, that it has a collar around its neck and that it isn't starving (some experts even made statements that could only be described as body-shaming, if they were directed at a human).
After the cat was first spotted, the owner was found, who purchased the cat legally in an EU country and who lives in Slovenia. He took his African wild cat for a walk, as one normally does, where the cat got spooked by some loose dogs, and ran away from him. How it found itself in Croatia is probably a question which will never be answered, especially if you consider the situation on the Croatian-Slovenian border. One has to have a dose of respect for the animal, though, having survived so long in an environment where it does not feel "at home", as it comes from Africa.
However, veterinarians Branimir Reindl and Vedran Slijepčević spent the time chasing after the cat, and yesterday they were finally successful. They had some help from the team working on the LIFE Lynx project (this cat doesn't have much to do with the lynx, but they are cats, after all, and it's nice that the project decided to help save a fellow cat in need), and after a week of intensive search (they were in contact with the owner) they managed to narrow the field down and finally snatch the cat.
The serval was caught near Sveta Helena, Sesvete, to the east of Zagreb, so it'd be interesting to see where it was staying and travelling all this time. It was probably eating wild rabbits, frogs, squirrels and rodents, and it's not at all dangerous to people.
Reindl told the VG Danas website that the cat was back at his home, totally relaxed and even taking food from his hand. The cat was probably just over that whole adventure and was waiting for someone to finally pick it up already. Good thing it was the veterinarians who wanted to help him, and not some hunters who don't really care about the laws. The cat will be returned to its owner today or tomorrow.
At least some good came out of this climate change crisis - it's hard to imagine the African cat managing to survive for two months during the proper winters we once used to have.
