When you live with cats and when you love them, somehow everything in your life (including your social media algorithm) revolves around them. Whenever I open Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube, what my social media eagerly waits for me to see are the cats (and sometimes beavers, pandas, monkeys – the list goes on and on) doing funny and cute things. Lately, I have been seeing videos of what appear to be two of the most famous cats on the internet: Pumba and Gosha.
Both the cats are of the same breed, i,e. wild caracal, though both have been domesticated, albeit by two different families from two different countries. Both the cats are well-kept, though slightly overfed! Their owners film them snuggling on beds and couches, butchering meat, or hissing at their owners.
Hissing is what they are famous for (and their videos involving hissing get the most reactions, both positive and negative, on social media), but Pumba’s hiss is more lethal, aggressive, and it more often than not sparks debates on Instagram and Reddit about whether or not the cat, who normally belongs in the wild and famous for roaming miles, likes being in captivity.
Who Are These Internet-Favorite Big Cats?
Aside from some titbits of information on the internet, you may not find much about these two cats. But they have been on Instagram for quite some time now, and they give us daily updates on how their day goes. So, jotting down the bits of information their owners share about them, I can claim to know them somewhat.
So, our friend Pumba is from Latvia (where it is legal to keep caracals as pets!) and lives with his owner, Deniss Jegorovs, but how he ended up with Deniss, we don’t know. The first post on Pumba’s Instagram account says Pumba was born in 2016.
Gosha, on the other hand, is one year younger than Pumba, born on December 21, 2017, in Kyiv. He was born in a breeding facility, later bought by Andrei Bondarv and Yelena Bondareva, and taken to Moscow. Both Gosha and Pumba love the company of other cats (Pumba lives with a ginger cat named Izjuma, and Gosha with a Maine Coon named Zhora), but the same may not be said with certainty about their company with humans.
However, a few write-ups I came across online, including news articles (based on interviews with Pumba’s caretaker), claim that Pumba loves human company and hates being alone, but we don’t know if this is true. Despite some similarities, the two cats have different personalities: Pumba seems angry most of the time, hissing continuously, while Gosha appears calm and relaxed.
Why Pumba Hisses A Lot
Carcal belongs in the wild, and they cannot purr or mew like feral cats, so hissing is their way of communicating with others. If seen in this way, Gosha’s hissing makes sense: he is trying to communicate, but if you have seen videos of Pumba, you might have noticed that his hissing is not just hissing; it comes with stiff body language that indicates that the cat is being bothered.
And, yes, he does not always hiss that way. He seems fine with his female owner and fellow cat Izjuma, but as soon as he sees the one behind the camera (probably the male owner), his hiss is no more communication; it is anger!
I tried to find reasons why Pumba does that, and you know, Pumba is famous, people love him, and they show concern whenever they see him hissing like that. So, people on Reddit have different theories, and one redditor had this to say:
“Pumba” doesn’t hiss at his female caretaker or his orange cat friend, only at the male caretaker. When in hissing mode, he also shows a tense body, wide-open pupils, which are a sign of fear, and often flattens his ears and even swipes when the first intimidation doesn’t work. These are obvious signs of distress, even seen in house cats. Obviously, Pumba doesn’t trust the male caretaker and is in distress around him.”
Other reasons are more nuanced and somewhat funny. Some people think he is afraid of the camera, so whenever he is filmed, he gets scared and starts hissing. And then there are other people who say that the person behind the camera wears a scary mask to make Pumba hiss, and that hissing is what Pumba is famous for. The hissing gets views and reactions on social media, which, in turn, brings in serious money!
Can We Imagine Pumba and Gosha in the Wild?
Pumba and Gosha are caracals, which are native to Africa, Central Asia, and India. Though they have been bought from breeding facilities, some Anti-exotic-pet advocates on Instagram keep pushing the idea of sending them back to the wild. The idea makes sense: wild animals should be in the wild.
If Pumba and Gosha were living in the wild, would their personalities evolve in the same way they did with their caretakers? Would they be seated on a comfy bed and couch, served ready-to-devour raw meat and chicken? And most importantly, would our famous friends weigh the same as they do right now?
If you have seen a caracal running or hunting in the wild, you can spot the obvious difference between caracals living in the wild and the domesticated ones. Caracals in the wild are true to their descriptions: long legs, a short face, and average weight somewhere between 8 and 20 kgs.
Not just that, they can jump up to 12 ft and catch their prey midair. But this description falls flat when we think of Pumba and Gosha: they are highly overweight, overfed, and under their immense weight, their legs rarely show, let alone appear long.
Though Pumba and Gosha have tufts on their ears, they have become more meme material on the internet than serving a practical function. But in the wild, tufts on ears are extremely, extremely important for caracals. They use their tuft to direct sound towards the ear canal and improve sound localization.
And by flicking their tuft, they mimic insects or small creatures, which helps them attract potential prey. And since their tuft breaks the outline of their head, it helps them blend with their surroundings to hide from both prey and predators.
So, if these cats were living in the wild, their behaviour and bodies would have been different altogether. Caracals are nocturnal and mostly solitary, but it is difficult to imagine Pumba and Gosha alone. Pumba’s caretaker claims that Pumba hates being alone (though we are not sure how much truth there is in it!), which directly contradicts caracal behavior.
And the cats in the wild are highly territorial, marking their territory with urine and dung. These cats, on the other hand, get along well with humans and with cats of different breeds (in fact, Pubma seems much happier with Izjuma than with anyone else).
So, yes, Pumba and Gosha would have been entirely different – physically and behaviorally – in the wild. They would look like the caracals that National Geographic often shows us: lean, agile, alert, and always on the hunt.
This kind of imagining takes us further, and like me, you might also be wondering what would happen if we sent them back to the wild. Is this a good idea? I know many of you would answer “yes,” and this view resonates with people who watch these two cats on Instagram and often suggest sending them back.
What Would “Going Back to the Wild” Really Mean for Pumba and Gosha?
It might make sense to suggest something like that, but it is far from logical or practical. Let’s imagine Pumba and Gosha somewhere in the Namib Desert of Namibia — probably flown there, since it is practically impossible for these cats to enter the wild on their own. Wild is not an empty place ready to welcome you whenever you want to enter; rather, it is an arena, or a battleground full of competition, a range of hierarchies, and marked territories.
The Caracal | Big Cat Month | National Geographic WILD UK
An animal that has never learned how to survive without human intervention, an animal that has never been to a place other than the breeding facility and a house, and an animal that has never interacted with a range of species, will find itself at a loss if suddenly taken to an alien place.
There is also the issue of fear. A wild animal needs a healthy fear of humans, roads, vehicles, and settlements. Animals that are used to people may approach unsafe situations, which puts them at high risk of injury or death.
So, it might sound liberating to suggest that these two animals should be returned to the wild, but the negative consequences of doing so far outweigh the positive intentions and idealism.