HOFFMAN ESTATE, Ill. — A wild cat found in parts of Africa and Asia was captured after wandering around a Chicago suburb.
Authorities on Tuesday lassoed the caracal using a pole with a string attached to the end and trapped it in a cage from under the deck of a home in Hoffman Estates, about 33 miles (53 kilometers) northwest of Chicago.
The big cat was first spotted in the area last week.
A Wisconsin animal sanctuary will adopt the unharmed caracal, which will “live a healthy and happy life far from Hoffman Estates,” police said in a statement.
Jan Hoffmann-Rau told WBBM-TV that she took the photo of the cat in her backyard Friday morning.
“Then it started showing up on my deck and jumped on my deck and actually looked at me through the window,” she said.
Native to Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and India, caracals prey on rodents, other small mammals, and birds. It is unclear how the caracal came to roam the Hoffman Estates.
In 2021, a suburban Detroit woman was ticketed and ordered to find new owners for her four African caracals after one of her wild cats escaped from its enclosure.
In 2019, police in Bloomington, Illinois shot and killed a woman and her daughter after a caracal escaped from its owner and scratched her. The cat also tried to attack the medium-sized dog. Caracal was shot dead after acting erratically and approaching a group of police and onlookers.
