Their black ears have large white spots in the middle of the back of each ear, called an eyespot, which all cats have. They are agile, and have been known to jump to catch birds. Humans in India train these cats to catch birds, hares, and small mammals, much like dogs. In the wild they will eat mongooses, hedgehogs, impala, birds, lizards, insects, and vegetation. They re very agile and have been observed taking on prey many times their size, such as gazelle.
Male caracals live in a large territory with smaller females' territories surrounding it.
Mating occurs year round, and during this time a female can have several partners. Two cubs are born in an abandoned burrow after a gestation period of 78-81 days. The female moves her young about once a day after they are one month old to avoid detection by predators. By six months, the young caracals are mature enough to leave their mother's territory to start territories of their own, which can overlap their mother's. They are mostly killed by farmers, because of predation on their livestock.