European wildcat: status, range, size and diet

About

The European wildcat resembles a large, stocky tabby. The fur is thick and brownish-grey with faint stripes, a dark stripe along the spine, and a bushy tail with a blunt black tip and dark rings. It is larger and heavier than most domestic cats, with a broader head and longer winter coat. Males are noticeably bigger than females and weight swings through the seasons.

It is often confused with domestic cats, but the two are distinct. The house cat descends from the African wildcat, Felis lybica, not from the European species. The IUCN Cat Specialist Group recognises two subspecies of Felis silvestris, one across Europe and one in Turkey and the Caucasus. The Scottish wildcat belongs with the European population and is not treated as a separate species.

Where it lives and what it eats

The wildcat lives in scattered populations from Iberia, France and Germany through Italy, the Balkans and Eastern Europe to Turkey and the Caucasus, with a small group in the Scottish Highlands and another on Sicily. It died out in England and Wales and in Ireland. It prefers broad-leaved and mixed forest and avoids heavily farmed land and settlements.

Voles and mice make up most of its meals, and rabbits take over where they are common. It also eats birds, insects, frogs, lizards and hares. It is solitary, mainly nocturnal and territorial, and males cover larger home ranges than females.

Threats and conservation

Globally the species is Least Concern, but trends are unclear across much of the range and several countries rate it as threatened, including Poland and Scotland. The most pressing concern is hybridisation with domestic and feral cats, which blurs genetic distinctiveness. The risk is high in Scotland and a worry in Iberia, and lower in Germany and Italy. Domestic cats also pass on diseases such as feline leukaemia and feline immunodeficiency virus. Wildcats are killed on roads, caught by accident in traps meant for other predators, poisoned by rodent baits and sometimes shot by people who mistake them for feral cats. Forest loss and fragmentation limit movement, as even large rivers and busy highways form barriers.

The species is protected under the EU Habitats Directive and the Bern Convention, and is in CITES Appendix II. Conservation depends on keeping forest corridors, controlling feral cats and neutering domestic ones.

Cats and people

Wildcats are wary of people and are not suited to captivity as pets. Keeping domestic cats neutered and vaccinated near wildcat country is one of the most direct ways owners can reduce hybridisation and disease. Seeing one in daylight is uncommon.