African wildcat
| African wildcat Temporal range: 131,000 years ago–present
Middle Pleistocene to present[1] | |
|---|---|
| A captive female Southern African wildcat | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | Felinae |
| Genus: | Felis |
| Species: | F. lybica
|
| Binomial name | |
| Felis lybica Forster, 1780
| |
| Subspecies | |
| |
| native range as of 2015[2] | |
The African wildcat (Felis lybica) is a small wildcat species with sandy grey fur, pale vertical stripes on the sides and around the face. It is native to Africa, West and Central Asia, and is distributed to Rajasthan in India and Xinjiang in China. It inhabits a broad variety of landscapes ranging from deserts to savannas, shrublands and grasslands.
The African wildcat is the ancestor of the domestic cat (F. catus). Some African wildcats were domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Near East. Interspecific hybrids between both species are common where their ranges overlap.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Driscoll07was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c Ghoddousi, A.; Belbachir, F.; Durant, S.M.; Herbst, M. & Rosen, T. (2022). "Felis lybica". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2022: e.T131299383A154907281. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T131299383A154907281.en. Retrieved 27 July 2022.