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Cape Peninsula Caracals Used Urban Edges but Kept to Darker Routes at Night

Wild caracal in Mountain Zebra National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Research · Ecology

Caracals (Caracal caracal) on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa did not simply avoid urban areas at night. GPS tracking showed that the cats often selected areas closer to urban development while simultaneously avoiding the brightest direct artificial light. Their kill sites also tended to occur where public street lighting was lower. The study was first available online on 28 January 2026 in Science of the Total Environment.

The researchers analysed nighttime and low-light GPS data from 24 caracals tracked between 2014 and 2017. The movement analysis contained 5,266 observed steps and compared them with three measures of artificial light at night: upward radiance emitted from the ground, the density of public city lights and diffuse urban skyglow. The models also accounted for distance to urban development, natural illumination, vegetation cover, age class and sex.

Caracals chose darker movement routes

Upward radiance gave the clearest movement result. Caracals selected movement paths with less of this direct artificial light while also tending to move closer to urbanisation. Subadults used areas with higher upward radiance than adults, indicating greater tolerance of artificial light among younger animals. The influence of light was comparatively similar between males and females and across the two studied subpopulations.

Foraging followed a different pattern

Foraging was analysed separately for 19 of the tracked caracals. Researchers identified 195 foraging or resting clusters under dark or low-light conditions and compared confirmed kill sites with other available locations within each animal’s home range. Kill-site selection fell as public street lighting increased, while upward radiance and skyglow did not show the same clear relationship.

The study therefore separates two aspects of urban life that often occur together. The caracals used the urban edge, but at night they still selected darker routes and darker places for kills. The authors suggest that proximity to urban areas can offer opportunities such as prey while strong direct illumination may increase perceived risk or reduce the concealment that darkness provides. They also discuss why diffuse skyglow may differ from direct lighting: low levels could resemble moonlight and potentially help visual activity, but this mechanism was not tested directly.

Light variables were difficult to separate

Upward radiance, public lighting and skyglow overlapped strongly across the landscape, so the study could not cleanly separate their independent effects. The broader conclusion is therefore not that all artificial light affects caracals in the same way, but that direct and diffuse night lighting can shape movement and foraging differently.

Sources and image credit

  1. Hickling, C. J., Serieys, L. E. K., Leighton, G. R. M., Kienle, S. S., Bishop, J. M., & Carroll, K. A. (2026). Illuminating the influence of artificial light at night on the behavior of an adaptable carnivore. Science of the Total Environment, 1016, 181469.Primary peer-reviewed open-access article. Available online 28 January 2026. CC BY-NC 4.0.

Image: Leo za1 — wild caracal in Mountain Zebra National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa, 19 January 2013; representative wild species image, not one of the Cape Peninsula caracals in the artificial-light study. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

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