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Information about Wildcat

For other meanings of Wild Cat and wildcat, see Wildcat (disambiguation).
For the Seminole leader, see Wild Cat (Seminole).
Wildcat[1]
Enlarge picture
European Wild Cat (Felis silvestris silvestris)

European Wild Cat (Felis silvestris silvestris)
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Carnivora
Family:Felidae
Genus:Felis
Species:F. silvestris
Binomial name
Felis silvestris
Schreber, 1775
subspecies
See text


The Wildcat (Felis silvestris), sometimes Wild Cat or Wild-cat, is a small predator native to Europe, the western part of Asia, and Africa. It is a hunter of small mammals, birds, and other creatures of a similar size. There are several subspecies distributed in different regions. Sometimes included is the ubiquitous domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus), which has been introduced to every habitable continent and most of the world's larger islands, and has become feral in many of those environments.

In its native environment, the Wildcat is adaptable to a variety of habitat types: savanna, open forest, and steppe. Although domesticated breeds show a great variety of shapes and colours, wild individuals are medium-brown with black stripes, between 45 and 80 cm (18–32 inches) in length, and weigh between 3 and 8 kilograms (6–17.6 pounds). Shoulder height averages about 35 cm (14 in) and tail length is about 30 cm (12 in). The African subspecies tends to be a little smaller and a lighter brown in colour.

The Wildcat is extremely timid. It avoids approaching human settlements. It lives solitarily and holds a territory of about 3 km².

A study by the National Cancer Institute suggests that all current house cats in the world are descendants from a group of self-domesticating wildcats 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Near East.[3] The closest relative of Felis sylvestris is Felis margarita.

Subspecies

According to the 2007 DNA analysis, there are only 5 subspecies[4] :
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The five subspecies of Felis silvestris according to a 2007 DNA study<ref name="CA-Driscoll" />.
Older texts separated out many more subspecies:

See also

  • Lynx, any of several medium-sized wild cats

References

1. ^ Wozencraft, W. C. (16 November 2005). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 536-537. ISBN 0-801-88221-4.2005&rft.edition=3rd%20edition&rft.pub=Johns%20Hopkins%20University%20Press&rft.pages=536-537&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fnmnhgoph.si.edu%2Fmsw%2F"> 
2. ^ Cat Specialist Group (2002). Felis silvestris. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 05 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
3. ^ Study Traces Cat's Ancestry to Middle East. Retrieved on June 29, 2007.
4. ^ « The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication », Science, 29 June 2007. : summary. Authors : Carlos A. Driscoll and al. (M. Menotti-Raymond, A.L. Roca, W.E. Johnson et S.J. O'Brien from the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD ; C.A. Driscoll, N. Yamaguchi & D. Macdonald of the Oxford University, Oxford, UK ; A.L. Roca of SAIC-Frederick society, Inc. in Frederick, MD ; K. Hupe of Jagd Einrichtungs Büro in Fürstenhagen, Germany ; E. Geffen Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel ; E. Harley Cape Town University, Cape Town, South-Africa ; M. Delibes, CSIC, Seville, Espagna ; D. Pontier, UMR-CNRS 5558, Villeurbanne, France ; D. Pontier, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I à Villeurbanne, France ; A.C. Kitchener, National Museums of Scotland, Scotland, UK.).

External links

A wildcat is a species of cat, although the term is also used to describe the bobcat. Outside the animal world, the term may refer to several concepts in various fields:

Sports Teams


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Wild Cat (c. 1810 – 1857) was a leading Seminole chieftain during the later stages of the Second Seminole War as well as the nephew of Micanopy.

Wild Cat was born Coacoochee or Cowacoochee
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F. s. silvestris

Trinomial name
Felis silvestris silvestris
Schreber, 1775

Eurasian Wildcat range


The European Wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris
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conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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Least Concern (LC) is an IUCN category assigned to extant species or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. As such they do not qualify as threatened, nor Near Threatened, nor (prior to 2001) Conservation Dependent.
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IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List), created in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Mammalia
Linnaeus, 1758

Subclasses & Infraclasses
  • Subclass †Allotheria*
  • Subclass Prototheria
  • Subclass Theria

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Carnivora
Bowdich, 1821

Families
  • 17, See classification

The diverse order Carnivora (IPA: /kɑrˈnɪvərə/
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Felidae
G. Fischer de Waldheim, 1817

Subfamilies

Felinae
Pantherinae
†Machairodontinae
Felidae is the biological family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid.
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Felis
Linnaeus, 1758

Species
  • Felis bieti
  • Felis chaus
  • Felis manul
  • Felis margarita
  • Felis nigripes
  • Felis silvestris


Felis
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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber (Weißensee, Thuringia, 1739 — Erlangen, 1810) was a German naturalist.

In 1774 Schreber began writing a multi-volume set of books entitled Die Säugethiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen
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8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
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Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea,
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Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.4% of its land area) and, with almost 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population.
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Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area.
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F. s. catus

Trinomial name
Felis silvestris catus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms
Felis lybica invalid junior synonym
Felis catus invalid junior synonym[2]

The cat (
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Feral cats are the descendants of domesticated cats that were abandoned by their owners or that strayed into wild areas from their homes. When the domesticated cats mated, their offspring were never handled by or associated with humans, thus making their kittens feral.
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1 inch =
SI units
010−3 m 0 mm
US customary / Imperial units
010−3 ft 010−3 yd


An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes,  
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pound or pound-mass (abbreviations: lb, ℔, lbm, or sometimes in the United States: #) is a unit of mass (sometimes called 'weight' in everyday parlance) in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United
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A solitary (Latin solus, meaning alone) person, animal or object is one which is not usually in the companionship of others of its type. Solitary activities are those which do not require (or indeed preclude) the presence of others, such as walking, listening to
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The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of the United States Federal government's National Institutes of Health. The NCI is a federally funded research and development center, one of eight agencies that compose the Public Health Service in the United States Department of Health
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Near East is a term commonly used by archaeologists, geographers and historians, less commonly by journalists and commentators, to refer to the region encompassing Anatolia (the Asian portion of modern Turkey), the Levant (Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon), Georgia, Armenia,
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F. margarita

Binomial name
Felis margarita
Loche, 1858

The Sand Cat (Felis margarita) is a small wild cat distributed over African and Asian deserts.
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F. s. silvestris

Trinomial name
Felis silvestris silvestris
Schreber, 1775

Eurasian Wildcat range


The European Wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris
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Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea,
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