Sunquist and Sunquist (2002) stated, that the Serval has quite specific habitat requirements, so it may be locally restricted to smaller areas within its broad distribution range; it is not found in areas of rainforest or desert like habitats.

In sub-Saharan Africa, Servals are found in well-watered savanna long-grass environments and are particularly associated with reedbeds and other riparian vegetation types (Thiel 2011). Geertsema (1981) associated Servals with well-watered habitats like grass savannas along river reed beds and swamps, in brush and open woodlands and along the edge of forests. Van Aarde and Skinner (1986) showed significantly higher usage of riverine habitats than expected. Grimshaw et al. (1995) and Andama (2000) even reported Servals on high altitude moorlands and bamboo thickets. They also range up into alpine grasslands, up to 3,800 m on Mount Kilimanjaro (Nowell and Jackson 1996). Servals can penetrate dense forest along waterways and through grassy patches, but are absent from the rainforests of Central Africa, and from desert environments. In North Africa, they are found from semi-desert to cork oak forest on the Mediterranean coast (De Smet 1989, Cuzin 2003). Servals are able to tolerate agricultural areas provided cover is available (Geertsema 1985, Thiel 2011), and may also benefit from forest clearance and the resulting encroachment of savanna at the edges of the equatorial forest belt (Ray et al. 2005). 

Serval specialize in preying on small mammals, in particular rodents, with birds of secondary importance, followed by reptiles and arthropods (Geertsema 1985, Bowland 1990, Thiel 2011). In Zambia Servals feed mainly on small mammals weighing in average ca 70 g and up to 1.5 kg, which mostly are nocturnal and have a preference for grassland, wetland or habitats associated with water; birds have an average weight of ca 250 g, in form of smaller birds (up to 200 g) or larger Galliformes (ground dwellers up to 4 kg) (Thiel 2011).

The Serval occurs widely through sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of tropical rainforest and the Saharan desert (Nowell and Jackson 1996). North of the Sahara, there are few records from Morocco (Cuzin 2003), possible records in Algeria (K. de Smet pers. comm.), and after they went extinct in Tunisia, Servals have been reintroduced using animals of East African stock into Feijda National Park (Hunter and Bowland 2013). Servals are rare south of the Sahara in the Sahel region such as Senegal (Clement et al. 2007). Gadsby (1991) proved the occurrence of Serval in Nigeria based on furs of this species being commonly traded on local markets. Trade evidence is used by Maisels et al. (2001) for occurrence in Cameroon and by Sayer and Green (1984) for occurrence in Benin.

Within the last years there are new records of Servals implying an expanding and recolonizing of some areas, such as central South Africa, Gabon, North West province of South Africa, eastern Central African Republic, south western Uganda and central Namibia (Herrmann et al. 2008, Bout 2010, Thorn et al. 2011, Hickisch and Aebischer 2013, Mugerwa 2013, C. Thiel pers. comm.).

The Serval is listed on CITES Appendix II. Hunting is prohibited in Algeria, Botswana, Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa (Cape province only), and Tunisia, and hunting regulations apply in Angola, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia (Nowell and Jackson 1996).

Servals occur in a number of protected areas across their range, including: El Kala National Park (N.P.) (Algeria), Feidja N.P. (Tunisia), Ifrane N.P. (Morocco), Comoé N.P. (Côte d’Ivoire), WAPO complex (Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger, Togo), Zakouma N.P. (Chad), Simien and Bale Mountains National Parks (Ethiopia), Odzala N.P. (Congo Republic), Virunga N.P. (DR Congo), Queen Elizabeth N.P. and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda), Aberdare Mountains N.P. (Kenya), Serengeti and Selous National Parks (Tanzania), Moremi G.R. and Chobe N.P. (Botswana), and Kruger N.P. and Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg Park (South Africa). Odzala N.P. in Congo Republic could be a key site for protecting serval as it is the only currently known protected population in the Gabon-Congolian savanna region, which are isolated from the Miombo woodlands south of the Congo River (P. Henschel pers. comm.).

As Geertsema (1985) and Bowland (1990) mentioned the key to Serval conservation is Wetland conservation. For these reasons it is crucial to investigate the Serval’s habitat requirements and to create an updated action plan for this species (Thiel 2011). The Serval can be used as an umbrella species for savanna biotopes; and as an indicator for the heavily endangered humid savanna biotope.