Featured specimens

These animals have been tamed and used for hunting since the time of ancient Egypt, meanwhile the exhibit of VU Zoology Museum was hunted in Africa by G. Vaitiekūnas. The name "caracal" is composed of two Turkic words: "kara", meaning "black", and "kulak", meaning "ear". Externally this animal is similar to the lynx, so the Greeks and Romans alternatively called it Persian lynx. Results of recent phylogenetic studies indicate that the caracal evolved nearly a million years before the lynx and is more closely related to puma and serval. Read more here...