Caracal welfare in arid environments — how desert adaptations shape their welfare needs and conservation challenges.
Caracal welfare in arid and semi-arid environments is shaped by the feast-and-famine cycles of desert prey availability. During drought periods when small mammal and bird populations collapse, caracals experience nutritional stress that affects immune function, reproduction, and ultimately survival. Expanding their diet to include livestock increases conflict risk and mortality from retaliatory killing. Climate change that extends and deepens drought conditions in their range creates a welfare trajectory that is difficult to separate from the conservation concern about population viability. Supporting prey base recovery through habitat restoration and rangelands management therefore addresses both individual caracal welfare and population-level conservation.