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HOME --> CLASS MAMMALIA
--> ORDER CARNIVORA
--> SUBORDER FELIFORMIA
--> FAMILY Felidae
--> SUBFAMILY Felinae
--> GENUS Felis
SPECIES Felis silvestris
| Author: | Schreber, 1777. | | Citation: | Die Säugethiere, 3(23): 397. | | Common Name: | Wildcat | | Type Locality: | Not given. Fixed by Haltenorth (1953) as "vielleicht Nordfrankreich". Listed by Pocock (1951) as "Germany". | | Distribution: | Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Republic of Congo, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, USA, Uzbekistan, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. | | Status: | CITES – Appendix II; IUCN – Vulnerable as F. s. grampia, otherwise Least Concern. | | Comments: | Also see comments under Felis catus. There is some confusion as to the correct species name. Schreber (1775) illustrated a plate as ‘Felis Catus ferus’, and in 1777 the text listed ‘Felis (Catus) silvestris’ and ‘Felis Catus (domestica).’ Opinion 465 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1957f) declared silvestris as the specific name for the European wild cat (with the understanding that F. catus and F. silvestris are usually considered conspecific). Revised by Ragni and Randi (1986), who included lybica, and by Haltenorth (1953), who included chutuchta, lybica, and vellerosa. However, Pocock's (1951) revision considered catus as separate and placed chutuchta and vellerosa in bieti, and they probably should be considered incertae sedis. Does not include F. catus (worldwide), which was domesticated from this species (Corbet, 1978c). Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951) argued that lybica Forster (1780), was a lapsus for libyca; however, there is no clear internal evidence that the name was misspelled (Meester et al., 1986). Rosevear (1974), Ansell (1978), Smithers (1983), Meester et al. (1986), and Wiseman et al. (2000) retained lybica as separate from silvestris. Hemmer (1978), Collier and O'Brien (1985), Salles (1992), Johnson and O'Brien (1997) and Essop et al. (1997b) supported the inclusion of silvestris, lybica and the domestic cat (catus), however Mattern and McLennan (2000) considered silvestris closer to margarita, and consider catus as sister group to lybica. Placed in Felis (Felis) by McKenna and Bell (1997). Subspecies allocated according to Pocock (1951), Ellerman et al. (1953), Smithers (1971), and Kitchener (pers. comm.). |
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