During the Gentse Feesten, several neighborhoods in Ghent were startled by a roaming serval – a big cat from the African savanna. The animal can grow up to a meter and weigh up to 18 kilograms. A mother serval with her young was reported during the celebrations, but only the mother was captured.
On Sunday evening, the fire brigade received another report of a stray serval near the Nieuwevaart, close to the barracks. Not much later, the fire brigade was able to catch the animal. There is a suspicion that a family in the Maïsstraat keeps some exotic cats as pets, which is prohibited in our country.
Two years ago a serval was spotted in Ghent, then in the Hutsepotstraat in Zwijnaarde. The big cat was sedated by the fire brigade and transferred to the small pets clinic of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Ghent University in Merelbeke. Later she was released into South Africa together with her own kind.