A wild cat native to Africa and Asia is captured in a Chicago suburb

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — A wild cat native to Africa and parts of Asia has been captured after roaming through a Chicago suburb.

Authorities used a pole with a cord on the end to lasso the caracal Tuesday and trap it 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 shelter was expected to pick up the unharmed caracal, which will “live a healthy and happy life away from Hoffman Estates,” police said.

Jan Hofman-Rau told WBBM-TV that she took pictures of the cat in her backyard on Friday morning.

“Then it started coming onto my deck, jumped onto my deck and 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 not clear how the caracal was allowed to roam free in Hoffman Estates.

In 2021, a woman from a Detroit suburb was ticketed and ordered to find another home for her four African caracals after one of the feral cats escaped from its enclosure.

Police in Bloomington, Illinois, shot and killed a caracal in 2019 after it escaped its owner and scratched a woman and her daughter. That cat also tried to attack a medium-sized dog. The caracal was shot after behaving erratically and approaching police and a group of bystanders.