To learn more about the people working on The Serval Project, please go to The Team page.
To learn more about the Software, you can visit the How it Works page, or visit the Serval Project Developer’s site.
Why Serval?
People have asked us often – why Serval? Two reasons – one is if you say the word slowly, it becomes Serve All – which is an aim of our software. Then they ask what is the serval, and why did we choose this particular animal for our project. Well, let us have a look at some of the characteristics of these amazing animals.
The serval is a medium-sized variation of an African wild cat, which shares many common traits with the cheetah. It lives mainly in savanna type regions, though it is remarkably adaptable to different surroundings. Ithas long legs – longest of all cats for body size – and that allows it to jump – and run extremely fast, with a top speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). It also has characteristic white tipped large ears with acute hearing – their long, almost bat shaped ears are used to detect the sound of movement, and they can pick up the ultrasonic high frequencies emitted by rodents and other small creatures. Patient, watchful, they have been known to stand up to 15 minutes at a time to listen for signal of their prey. Their ability to land precisely on target allows them to be among the most efficient of hunters, with far higher catch success rates than most cat species. They are highly intelligent, playful, and demonstrate what have been described as ‘remarkable problem solving skills’.
Given the aims and goals of our project, and how we expect the hardware to perform, surely it seems obvious that these wonderful creatures are the perfect symbol for such an endeavour.
Related articles
- 8 Obscure but Adorable Wildcat Species (mentalfloss.com)
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