African wildcat: status, range, size and diet

About

The African wildcat is a slim, long-legged cat with sandy to grey fur, faint stripes or spots on the flanks, ringed forelegs and a tapering tail with a dark tip. It is a little larger and lankier than a typical house cat and has reddish-backed ears. It is solitary and mostly nocturnal, especially near settlements or in hot country.

It is the wild species from which the domestic cat descends. The best evidence suggests that cats first attached themselves to farming villages in the Near East roughly ten thousand years ago, when grain stores drew rodents. The two forms remain close enough to interbreed.

Three subspecies are generally recognised: one across North Africa, East and West Africa and the Middle East, a southern African form, and the Asiatic wildcat of Asia, which has its own page on this site. The European wildcat, by contrast, is a different species.

Where it lives and what it eats

The species occupies most of Africa except the closed Congo rainforest, with populations across the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia as far as western China and Mongolia. It also lives on Sardinia, Corsica and Crete. Open savanna, grassland, scrub and rocky country suit it best, and it can live in drier areas where cover exists.

Rodents are the main prey, from gerbils and jerboas to mice, together with hares, birds, lizards and insects. In southern Africa it sometimes takes young antelope or small livestock.

Threats and conservation

The global category is Least Concern, yet the species has had little conservation attention. Its main long-term threat is hybridisation with domestic cats, which is widespread where wildcats live near villages and has been documented across Africa and Asia. Feral cats also compete for food and spread diseases. Other threats include persecution, dog attacks, road deaths, rodent poison and use of the fur in local markets. Several regional populations are rated at higher risk, such as those in the Arabian Peninsula, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and China.

It is listed in CITES Appendix II and is protected in much of its range. Surveys that can tell pure wildcats from hybrids are a research priority.

Cats and people

For most of its range the African wildcat lives alongside herders and farmers, who value it for controlling rodents and sometimes resent it for taking poultry. Wild individuals do not make good pets. Any owner of a domestic cat in wildcat country can help the species by keeping the cat neutered, as unneutered cats are the main route for hybridisation.