European Wildcat
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| Felis silvestris silvestris Schreber, 1775 |
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 Eurasian Lynx range
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The European Wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) inhabits forests of Western, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in Scotland and Turkey; it is not found in Scandinavia, Iceland, England, Wales, or Ireland. Its physical appearance is much bulkier than that of the desert cats and domestic cats. The thick fur and size are distinguishing traits; a Wildcat normally would not be mistaken for a domestic cat. In contrast to domestic cats, they are most active in the daytime.
Wildcats were common in the European Pleistocene era; when the ice vanished, they became adapted to a life in dense forests. In most European countries they have become very rare. Although legally protected, they are still shot by hunters mistaking them for domestic cats. In Scotland, interbreeding with feral cats is also a threat to the wild population. It is not known to what extent the interbreeding has affected or replaced the wild population, and although some have claimed[attribution needed] that there are no "pure" Wildcats left at all, there is still considerable disagreement.
Two forms coexisted in large numbers in the Iberian Peninsula: the common European form, north of the Douro and Ebro rivers, and the giant Iberian form, previously considered a different subspecies F. s. tartessia, in the rest of the territory. The last is one of the heaviest subspecies of Felis silvestris; In his book Pleistocene Mammals of Europe (1963), palaeontologist Dr. Björn Kurtén noted that this subspecies conserves the same size of the form that lived in all Europe during the Pleistocene. Although Spain and Portugal are the West European countries with the greatest population of wild cats, the animals in these region are threatened by breeding with feral cats and loss of habitat.
[edit] References
- ^ 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.
