See text Caracal is a genus in the subfamily Felinae of the family Felidae.

It was proposed by John Edward Gray in 1843 who described a skin from the Cape of Good Hope in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London.

[2] Historically, it was considered to be a monotypic genus, consisting of only the type species: the caracal C.

[1] Phylogenetic analysis revealed that caracal, African golden cat (C. aurata) and serval (Leptailurus serval) are genetically closely related forming a genetic lineage that diverged from the common ancestor of the Felidae 7.91 to 4.14 million years ago.

[3] This taxonomic classification is used in the IUCN Red List for the African golden cat.