Servals are medium-sized African wild cats increasingly popular in the exotic pet trade — their welfare needs in zoo and private settings.
Serval welfare in private ownership represents one of the most widespread exotic cat welfare crises in North America. These athletic, wide-ranging hunters are routinely kept in domestic settings where they cannot run, hunt, or express the behavioral repertoire that defines their species. The exotic pet market exploits the gap between states with strong regulation and those with minimal oversight, allowing servals to be sold and kept in conditions that would not be permitted for other wild animals. Zoo serval programs that provide large, naturalistic enclosures with varied terrain and hunting simulation opportunities demonstrate what adequate serval welfare looks like — a standard that private ownership almost never meets.