What Johnson said is true. “They are small and the grass is long and the Masai Mara is big”

There are two books which started my interest in the natural world. The first was A Treasury of Natural History by Bertha Morris Parker which I got when I was eight years old. The second was An Encyclopaedia of Animals in Colour, edited by Dr Maurice Burton which I got when I was ten years old. In the encyclopaedia was one of the most exciting photographs I had ever seen. It was a small spotted African cat called a Serval. The photograph was full-page and its long legs, sleek body and huge ears were a delight to me.

SERVAL. Felis serval, unusual looking member of the cat family because of its very long legs and large erect ears. It is entirely confined to Africa, south of the Sahara, where it lives in regions of medium cover in the broken country of the foothills.

I’ve wanted to see one for fifty years. I’ve seen one caged in a zoo. It’s not the same. As we are driving around the Masai Mara I idly say to my guide, Johnson, “There is one thing I’d love to see.” He turns an ear to me. “I’d love to see a Serval. It’s been my dream since I was a small boy. I love them. When I was ten I had a book with a photograph of a Serval in it and I fell in love with them”. I see him shake his head slightly.

“Not so easy. With all this long grass”. He gestures at it. “They are small and the grass is long and the Masai Mara is big”. I hear him on the radio, talking in what I think is Swahili. He turns, “I’ve put a call out, so if anyone sees one they will let me know”. He carries on as if he’s wasted his time, the task is pointless, but he’s done his duty to his client.

A few minutes later, there’s a voice on his radio and he smiles as he says, “Someone’s on one now. It’s only five minutes away. We’re going there now?”

“What? A Serval?” I say incredulously.

“Yes, its just five minutes away”.

There it is, with its incredibly large ears, in the long grass.

I can’t believe we are so close.

It’s not resting, it’s hunting. As Johnson manoeuvres the 4×4 around it, we can see its ears moving. It’s not in the least bothered by the couple of cars here. I wonder how it can possibly hear its prey with the engines going. They must be incredibly sensitive to specific frequencies and also have directional hearing. Servals do have the largest ears relative to their body size of any cat species. If humans had those ears they would be the size of dinner plates. Actually, there was a boy at my school like that.

Serval ears have 22 muscles which allow them to rotate their ears 180 degrees. They swivel independently.

What a face!

It turns its head and jumps into the long grass, and, with a rat in its mouth, is buried and out of sight. It is literally impossible to see it and we are right next to it. Johnson drives around it. No chance. It’s invisible.

What Johnson said is true. “They are small and the grass is long and the Masai Mara is big”.

It’s a dream come true