Desert Lynx

Felis Caracal                                            North Africa, Western Asia

This long-legged high jumper, also known as the caracal can leap 10 feet in a single bound, plucking birds out of the air with one paw and gobbling a wing before returning to earth. So quick and agile are caracals that Middle Eastern princes used to enlist them for pigeon-catching contests. A pair of cats would be let loose on a flock of ground feeders, and it's said that in the second before the fleeing birds could get airborne, the winner would nab no fewer than 10.