Cape Town’s most commonly spotted loner caracal, Hermes, was seen having a “picnic date” with another caracal on July 19.
Love may be blossoming for the Mother City’s most well-known caracal, often spotted wandering the mountainside alone.
Hermes was seen enjoying the company of another caracal near Lion’s Head on Sunday, July 19. A number of lucky hikers spotted the curious couple perched on a rock together and Gary Biederman managed to capture a video of the two.
The Urban Caracal Project thinks the pair were perhaps hunting guinea fowl together but noted how comfortable the birds were with the presence of predators.
“Guinea fowl are a favorite prey of caracals. Although the guinea fowl seem to be relatively comfortable with the caracals in this video, the guinea fowl are actually alarm calling and confronting their potential predators,” said the project on a Facebook post.
Spotting caracals around Cape Town is quite the rare occurrence but spotting two at once almost never happens.
According to the Urban Caracal Project this is the time of year when caracals court one another and this could explain the close vicinity of the two wild cats.
“The gestation period for caracals is around 75 days, and we generally see kittens born around early October through December. The males do not help care for the young but we are hoping that Hermes fathers some very cool kittens! Go Hermes,” adds the project.
Watch the video of the rarely seen meeting below:
Picture: Facebook