"English: Leptailurus serval demonstrating the 2.5 m vertical jump that he uses to catch birds flying overhead. But he is even better at catching mice. The average serval eats 4,000 mice per year."
BREAKING NEWS [I'm just kidding]: A new book manuscript has been found: "Of Servals and MIce", by John Steinbeck. Critics say it will be even more successful than "Of Men and Mice".
How to kill a [mo]cking bird.
How to score a birdie (not an eagle).
Modern molecular DNA analysis indicates that servals maintain their own unique lineage descending from the same Felid ancestor as the lion.
The serval shares common traits with the cheetah, and it is the cheetah which is thought to have descended from ancient servals.[3]
Similar DNA studies have shown the African golden cat and the caracal are closely related to the serval."
A serval from the Sabi Sands area of South Africa.
Note the large ears adapted for hearing small prey (like mice).
A serval viewed from behind.
Note the white markings on the ears (ocelli) used to signal kittens when hunting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serval
Like a student in an overly-demanding school system
"The serval eats very quickly, sometimes too quickly, causing it to gag and regurgitate due to clogging in the throat."
"The serval is an efficient killer, catching prey on an average of 50% of attempts (with a 67% success rate at night), compared to around one in ten attempts for most species of cat.[7]
Servals are extremely intelligent, and demonstrate remarkable problem-solving ability[citation needed], making them notorious for getting into mischief,[citation needed] as well as easily outwitting their prey, and eluding other predators.
The serval will often play with its captured prey for several minutes, before consuming it. In most situations, servals will ferociously defend their food against attempted theft by others.
Males can be more aggressive than females."
Translators from around the world have decided to dumb-down/ idiotproof the book title IL GATTOPARDO, so that the masses/ crowds/ simple minds/ simpletons / commoners [as the translators might have regarded most of us] will NOT scratch their heads asking:
"What the hell is a SERVAL?"
"The serval (Italian gattopardo) was the symbol of the Tomasi family, princes of Lampedusa, whose best-known member was Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of one of the most famous Italian novels of the 20th century, Il Gattopardo."
"The Leopard (Italian: Il Gattopardo) [MY NOTE: Romanian literary translation, not to be outdone: Ghepardul = The Cheetah] is a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the Risorgimento.
Published posthumously in 1958, after two rejections by the leading Italian publishing houses Mondadori and Einaudi,[disambiguation needed] it became the top-selling novel in Italian history and is considered one of the most important novels in modern Italian literature.
The novel was also made into an award-winning 1963 film of the same name, directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon."
ALAIN DELON
BURT LANCASTER
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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!
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