Black Serval

Black Serval
ブラックサーバル
Character Data
AKA		Melanistic serval
Romaji		Burakku sābaru
Debut		Kemono Friends 3
Animal Data
Scientific Name		Leptailurus serval
Distribution		Central & South Africa
Diet		Carnivore
Avg. Lifespan		12-20 years
Read More		Serval (see also: melanism)
Conservation

Black Serval

KF3

Gallery

Black Serval is a type of feline Friend based on rare melanistic servals.

Appearance

Black Serval bears a striking resemblance to Serval EX1 but she has a long ponytail and her design is colored mostly black.

Series Appearances

Appearances In Kemono Friends Media

Media		Role
2019	Kemono Friends 3	↪ Major character, playable character

In Real Life

A Melanistic black serval named Manja. Photo by George Turner via georgetheexplorer on asiliaafrica.com.

The Serval (Leptailurus serval) is a small-sized species of cat native to most of sub-Saharan Africa. They are thin cats with small heads and large, rounded ears. The body of a mature individual is 32 to 40 inches long and their tails are 8 to 12 inches long. When standing normally they are 20 inches tall and weigh around 33 pounds. Newborn Servals have a grayer tint compared to adults.

Black Servals are nearly identical to regular Servals, save for their dark fur coloring. This is caused by Melanism.

Melanism is a congenital excess of melanin in an organism, usually animals, which results in a dark pigment. It is related to the process of adaptation called "adaptive". More often than not, darker individuals become more fit to survive and reproduce in their environment as they are better camouflaged. This makes prey animals less conspicuous to predators, and predators can use it as a foraging advantage, especially during night hunting.

A Black Serval and normal Serval playing. Photo by Jeremy Goss via africageographic.com.

Typically, melanism is inheritable, meaning it can be passed to the individuals' offspring. It is a dominant allele, that which is entirely or nearly entirely expressed in the phenotype, which is then responsible for the excessive amount of melanin. Adaptive and normal melanism can be found in many animals, including squirrels, felines, canids, and even snakes.

In 2003, the dominant mode of inheritance of melanism (specifically in jaguars) was confirmed by performing phenotype-transmission analysis in a 116-individual captive pedigree. All animals that had melanism were found to carry at least one copy of a mutant MC1R sequence allele, bearing a 15-base pair inframe deletion. Ten melanistic jaguars unrelated to the study were either Homozygous (two copies of the gene) or Heterozygous (one copy of the gene) for this allele. Another gene called the Agouti gene may also cause melanism.

Since Black Servals are not considered a subspecies, merely a morph of regular Servals, they are lumped in the same IUCN group and thus Least Concern.

Trivia

• Another example of Melanism is the Black Leopards and Black Jaguars; it is not a true subspecies, merely one with a dark morph.
• Melanistic coats occur as a common polymorphism in 11 of 37 felid species
• Pseudomelanism (also called abundism), is another variant of pigmentation, which is identified by large dark spots or enlarged stripes, which cover a large part of the body of the animal. This makes it appear melanistic, though it is not the same mutation.
• Black Serval is the first and only Serval Friend variants whose design isn't based on Serval's normal design.

References

• Serval Wiki Page
• Melanism Wiki Page
• Osinga, N.; Hart, P.; van VoorstVaader, P. C. (2010). "Albinistic common seals (Phoca vitulina) and melanistic grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) rehabilitated in the Netherlands". Animal Biology. 60 (3): 273−281. doi:10.1163/157075610x516493. S2CID 84554567.
• Eizirik, E.; Yuhki, N.; Johnson, W. E.; Menotti-Raymond, M.; Hannah, S. S.; O'Brien, S. J. (2003). "Molecular Genetics and Evolution of Melanism in the Cat Family". Current Biology. 13 (5): 448–453. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00128-3. PMID 12620197. S2CID 19021807.