Expert shares knowledge on caracals

A talk on the Urban Caracal Project will be presented by Dr Jacqueline Bishop at the Franschhoek Theatre on Wednesday August 28. The event is hosted by SmallTalX, and is open to the public.

Dr Bishop is part of the scientific team behind the Urban Caracal Project, which researches and tracks caracals in urban areas around Cape Town. They use GPS tracking and humane trapping to study caracal movements, and find out how this remarkable cats adapt to living around human settlements.

The Project was founded in 2014 by Dr Laurel Seriys. It is supported by the University of Cape Town (where Dr Bishop also works as an evolutionary ecologist and conservation biologist), and enjoys a close relationship with the Cape Leopard Trust.

In the talk, Dr Bishop will discuss how caracals have adapted to urban environments, the threats they face, their territorial ranges, and their behaviour. She will also introduce the audience to several individual caracals that have become minor celebrities in their own right.

One such individual is Hermes, a frequently-sighted male that lived in the Camps Bay area and was often spotted on the Pipe Track trail. Another is Beskuitjie, who was first tagged after hiding in a Durbanville kitchen, and later turned up in Paarl.

This talk forms part of the SmallTalX series, which hosts expert speakers in Franschhoek, the Helderberg, and the Cape Peninsula area. The talk provides the public with a chance to interact with experts from a variety of fields in an informal setting.

Upcoming talks include radio astronomy at MeerKAT (with Sarah Buchner), continental drift and fossils (with Nick Norman), and indigenous plants (with Leon Kluge).

Dr Bishop’s talk on caracals takes place on Wednesday August 28 at the Franschhoek Theatre, and starts at 6.30pm.

Tickets cost R250 and include wine, snacks, and a Q&A with the speaker. Tickets can be booked at www.franschhoektheatre.co.za, or by emailing smalltalx.info@gmail.com.