CatSG

African wildcat

Felis lybica lybica

IUCN Red List: NA

Felis lybica

IUCN Red List: LC

Weight: 3-8 kg
Body length: 45-80 cm
Tail length: ca. 30 cm
Longevity: up to 16 years
Litter size: 1-6 cubs

Description

The revised taxonomy of the Felidae provisionally recognises the following species of the Genus Felis: Felis chaus (Jungle cat), Felis nigripes (Black-footed cat), Felis margarita (sand cat), Felis bieti (Chinese mountain cat), Felis silvestris (European wildcat), Felis lybica (Afro-Asiatic wildcat) and Felis catus (domestic cat). Felis lybica thus includes the steppe and bush cats of Africa and Asia. Although from some key areas no samples were available, three subspecies of Felis lybica are tentatively identified:

  • Felis lybica lybica in East, West and North Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Middle East, Corsica, Sardina and Crete 
  • Felis lybica cafra in southern Africa, boundary with F. l. lybica may lie in Mozambique or Tanzania and
  • Felis lybica ornata in South-West and Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Mongolia and China.

The wildcat was domesticated around 9,000-10,000 years ago in the Southwestern Asia. Recent investigation indicates that the origin of the domestic cat lies in Mesopotamia where the first grains were cultivated. With rising agricultural practices there was a need to protect the grains from rodents.

The wildcat is the size of a large housecat. The wildcat has longer legs than the domestic cat giving it a more upright posture in the sitting position and a different walking form. The wildcat’s fur is short, reddish to sandy and tawny brown to greyish coloured, typically marked with faint, unremarkable tabby stripes and spots on the body and sides. The wildcat have short muzzles with orange around the nose and white patches below the eyes. Its tail is long, and dark above with three blackish rings at the base and a dark tip. Its paw pads are black like those of the black-footed cat. The wildcat distinguishes itself from the European one by lighter build, less distinct markings and a thin tapering tail. 

Other names

Language/Country

Name

Algeria (Tamahaq)

tarda-tarhda, arhedaa, aghda

Arabic

sooner mousch or mesch

Berber

emischisch boudrar, akriw, mousch abrani

Bournouan

larrouye

Botswana (Ju/hoan Bushman; Setswna)

/nua; phahê, tibê

Chad

Batou ana guesh, guetté

Ethiopia (Amharic)

ye-dw dimmet

French

chat ganté, chat sauvage d'Afrique

German

Falbkatze

Kenya (Kikuyu; Luo)

nyau; ogwang burra

Kiswahili

kaka pori, kimburu, kaka mwitu

Kotoko

gamsi lala

Libya (Tamahaq)

tarda-tarhda, arhedaa, aghda

Mali (Bambara)

kongo diakouma, yacoumawara

Mauritania (Wolof)

Wuundu ale

Namibia (Hei/kum Bushman; Ju/hoan Bushman)

!ores; /nua

Niger (Tamahaq)

tarda-tarhda, arhedaa, aghda

Saudi Arabia

biss burree

Sara

moula

Senegal (Wolof)

Wuundu ale

Somalia

Bisad car, jifa, mukulel dur, dinaad dur, dinad dibadeed

South Africa (Afrikaans; Zulu)

Vaalboskat; mpaka, mbodia

Spanish

gato montés, gato silvestre

Sudan

kadees el khala

Tanzania (Luo)

ogwang burra

Tamahaq

Uganda (Luganda)

mbaki

Wolof

Wuundu ale

Zimbabwe (Ndebele; Shona)

igola; nhiriri

Status and Distribution

The wildcat (including Felis silvestris and Felis lybica) is considered as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The species Felis lybica has not yet been separately assessed in the IUCN Red List. The status of the Afro-Asiatic wildcat is not very clear as it is a cryptic species and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish it from domestic cats. In The Red List of Mammals of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, it is listed as Least Concern.

The Afro-Asiatic wildcat has a very wide distribution, found throughout most of Africa, southwest and central Asia into India, China, and Mongolia. In Africa, the wildcat occurs in wide parts. It is present in all east and southern African countries. In West Africa, it is widely distributed from Mauritania to the Horn of Africa, Sudan and Ethiopia. In North Africa, they occur discontinuously from Morocco through Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya into Egypt.  The distribution of the wildcat continues around the periphery of the Arabian Peninsula. Recent new records from the interior parts of Saudi Arabia suggest that the wildcat may be found in most parts of the Peninsula, not just around the periphery.

In Morocco, the distribution of the wildcat has decreased over the last century. It was previously found on the Atlantic plains from where it has disappeared. It is still found in the mountainous areas in the north of the country, the northern fringes of the Sahara and along the coastal areas of central and southern Morocco.

Distribution area of the Afro-Asiatic wildcat: red = extant, orange = possibly extant, grey = presence uncertain (Ghoddousi et al. 2022, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022).
Distribution area of the African wildcat: red = extant, orange = possibly extant, grey = presence uncertain (Ghoddousi et al. 2022, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022).

Habitat

The wildcat has a very broad habitat tolerance and is found from deserts, semi deserts, savannahs, scrub grassland to open forests in hilly and rocky terrain as well as in mixed forests. It requires some cover in the form of bushes, shrubs, tall grass, rocky hillsides, burrows created by aardvarks or other species, or agricultural crops such as maize. The wildcat seems to be absent only from tropical rainforest. In the Nubian, Saharan and Arabian deserts, it seems to be restricted to mountains and dry watercourses. In Kenya, Ethiopia and Algeria, the wildcat has been recorded at over 3,000 m elevation. 

Ecology and Behaviour

The wildcat is a solitary species but can, as the feral domestic cats sometimes do, form temporary large groups comprised of a female with her offspring from several consecutive litters. It is mainly nocturnal, especially in very hot environments or in proximity to settled areas but it can also be active in early mornings or late afternoons.

The wildcat hunts primarily on the ground but it is an excellent climber. It gets its prey by stalking followed by a quick attack.

The wildcat is territorial and uses scent marks for communication. In the United Arab Emirates, the home range of one female was quite large at 52.7 km². In South Africa, female home ranges of 6-10 km² were recorded in the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park. In the southern Kalahari, home ranges of females reached 3.5 km² and of males 7.7 km². The home range of one male wildcat near the Nakuru in Kenya was 4.3 km².

The birth season in southern Africa is from September to March. In the northern Sahara, breeding takes place from January to March. Gestation lasts for 56-68 days and at 9-12 months the wildcat reaches its sexual maturity. When the female is in heat, it only allows one male to be in its territory. 

African wildcat cleaning its fur.
African wildcat kitten.

Prey

The main prey species of the wildcat are rodents such as rats, mice and voles. It also hunts insectivores, hares, rabbits, birds, insects, frogs, lizards, fish and occasionally martens, weasels, polecats, and poultry. The wildcat can also prey on young antelopes and small livestock (lambs, goat kits). It is also known to be a scavenger. In a study of 80 stomach contents, 44 contained exclusively Muridae. A camera trap picture from Saudi Arabia shows a wildcat dragging a dead Blandford’s fox. It is assumed that the fox was killed by the cat, but it is unclear whether the cat actually consumed the fox or whether this was the result of non-consumptive interspecific competition.

African wildcat with a freshly killed rodent.
African wildcat with its prey.

Main Threats

Hybridization with domestic cats is considered the main threat to the wildcat. Evidence of such hybridization has been found in southern and northern Africa. Hybridization may have been taking place over a long period of time, and it is possible that nowadays very few genetically pure wildcats exist in Africa. Pure genetic populations may only persist in protected areas far from human settlements. For example, in South Africa, the purest wildcats were found in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, but domestic cats were found in 16 out of 19 of the country’s national parks. Feral domestic cats also compete with wildcats for prey and habitat and wildcats can suffer from disease transmitted by domestic cats.

Another threat is the loss of habitat or habitat quality due to habitat conversion into agricultural land. Wildcats are also killed by vehicles, as bycatches of predator control measures or by rodenticides. In some parts of Africa, they are persecuted as pests due to poultry and lamb predation. Some communities in the Kalahari, Khomani and Mier used wildcat fur in their traditional garments, but the impact on the population is believed to be limited.

Conservation Efforts and Protection Status

The wildcat is included in Appendix II of CITES but it is not protected over most of its range in Africa. Hunting is prohibited in Algeria, Israel, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria and Tunisia. In Angola, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania and Togo, hunting is regulated. There is no legal protection in Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Oman, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Zaïre, Zambia and Zimbabwe. No information is available for Burundi, Chad, Djibouti, Guinea, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Qatar, Syria, Western Sahara and Yemen.

The wildcat can live also in agricultural or cultivated landscapes dominated by humans if enough rodents are available. However, such habitats are also where hybridization takes place and spreads. Therefore, it is important to identify genetically pure wildcats and assure their protection to prevent hybridization or disease spread from domestic cats. The differentiation between wild and domestic cat is however complicated and difficult to do. An International Studbook aims to record the captive individuals of the subspecies distributed in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, the Gordon’s wildcat (F. s. gordoni), which is threatened via hybridisation and human encroachment of the desert environment.