Sardinian wildcat | |
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Local wild cat in Villagrande Strisaili | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Suborder: | Feliformia |
Family: | Felidae |
Subfamily: | Felinae |
Genus: | Felis |
Species: | F. catus |
Binomial name | |
Felis catus | |
Synonyms | |
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The Sardinian wildcat (or, less commonly, the Sardinian lynx) is an isolated population of feral cats (Felis catus) on the island of Sardinia, introduced during the Roman Empire. [1] It has historically been misidentified as a species of lynx or a subspecies of wildcat.
Under the name Felis lybica sarda, it is locally protected as a rare species.[ citation needed ]
The population was first described as a wildcat as Felis libyca sarda by Fernand Lataste in 1885, based on the skin and skull of a male cat from Sarrabus in Sardinia, which he wrote resembled an African wildcat but more reddish, grey, and brown, and with longer hairs on the back. [2] Another name, Felis mediterranea, was also proposed for wildcats from Sardinia in 1896. [3]
In 1910 it was reclassified as Felis ocreate sarda, [4] while in 1912 it was considered a full species Felis sarda by Miller. [5]
The Sardinian lynx with the scientific name Lynx lynx sardiniae was proposed by the Italian biologist Pasquale Mola in 1908 for two zoological specimens of a cat from Nuoro in Sardinia that were part of the zoological collection of the University of Sassari. [6] [7] These specimens were reassessed in 1911 by Alessandro Ghigi who identified them as Sardinian wildcats. [8] Gighi's assessment was corroborated in 1981 by an Italian biologist who examined the still available mounted specimen initially described by Mola. [9]
Following taxonomic changes around Felis lybica , an updated name is Felis lybica sarda.[ citation needed ] The term Felis silvestris lybica var. sarda, using an outdated name for the African wildcat, was also used in one paper. [10]
Results of zooarchaeological research indicate that Sardinian wild cats descended from domestic cats that were introduced around the beginning of the first millennium during the Roman Empire, and probably originated in the Near East. [11] [1]
Mola described the body length of these specimens as 50 cm (20 in) with a 25 cm (9.8 in) long tail and a shoulder height of 35 cm (14 in). Their long and dense fur was fulvous on the back and whitish on the belly. He considered them to be a crossing of a lynx and a domestic cat. [6] [7]
Sardinian or Sard is a Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia.
Felis is a genus of small and medium-sized cat species native to most of Africa and south of 60° latitude in Europe and Asia to Indochina. The genus includes the domestic cat. The smallest of the seven Felis species is the black-footed cat with a head and body length from 38 to 42 cm. The largest is the jungle cat with a head and body length from 62 to 76 cm.
The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat and the African wildcat. The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the African wildcat inhabits semi-arid landscapes and steppes in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia, into western India and western China. The wildcat species differ in fur pattern, tail, and size: the European wildcat has long fur and a bushy tail with a rounded tip; the smaller African wildcat is more faintly striped, has short sandy-gray fur and a tapering tail; the Asiatic wildcat is spotted.
A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat that lives outdoors and avoids human contact; it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens of generations and become an aggressive local apex predator in urban, savannah and bushland environments. Some feral cats may become more comfortable with people who regularly feed them, but even with long-term attempts at socialization, they usually remain aloof and are most active after dusk. Of the 700 million cats in the world, an estimated 480 million are feral.
The Sardinian pika is an extinct species of lagomorph that was endemic to the islands of Sardinia, Corsica and neighbouring Mediterranean islands until its extinction likely in Roman times. It was the last surviving member of Prolagus, a genus of lagomorph once widespread throughout Europe during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, whose closest living relatives are pikas of the genus Ochotona.
Felinae is a subfamily of the Felidae and comprises the small cats having a bony hyoid, because of which they are able to purr but not roar. Other authors have proposed an alternative definition for this subfamily, as comprising only the living conical-toothed cat genera with two tribes, the Felini and Pantherini, and excluding the extinct sabre-toothed Machairodontinae.
A felid hybrid is any of a number of hybrids between various species of the cat family, Felidae. This article deals with hybrids between the species of the subfamily Felinae.
The Cretan wildcat is a member of the genus Felis that inhabits the Greek island of Crete. Its taxonomic status is unclear at present, as some biologists consider it probably introduced, or a European wildcat, or a hybrid between European wildcat and domestic cat. It was previously considered a separate subspecies of wildcat as Felis silvestris cretensis.
The European wildcat is a small wildcat species native to continental Europe, Scotland, Turkey and the Caucasus. It inhabits forests from the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Central and Eastern Europe to the Caucasus. Its fur is brownish to grey with stripes on the forehead and on the sides and has a bushy tail with a black tip. It reaches a head-to-body length of up to 65 cm (26 in) with a 34.5 cm (13.6 in) long tail, and weighs up to 7.5 kg (17 lb).
The Asiatic wildcat, also known as the Asian steppe wildcat and the Indian desert cat, is an African wildcat subspecies that occurs from the eastern Caspian Sea north to Kazakhstan, into western India, western China and southern Mongolia. There is no information on current status or population numbers across the Asiatic wildcat's range as a whole, but populations are thought to be declining.
The Gennargentu National Park is a national park on the east coast of Sardinia.
The African wildcat is a small wildcat species with sandy grey fur, pale vertical stripes on the sides and around the face. It is native to Africa, West and Central Asia, and is distributed to Rajasthan in India and Xinjiang in China. It inhabits a broad variety of landscapes ranging from deserts to savannas, shrublands and grasslands.
Achille Costa was an Italian zoologist working mainly in entomology who was appointed director of the Zoological Museum of Naples. He founded the entomological collections in Naples and described many new species.
The Corsican wildcat is an isolated cat population of uncertain taxonomic status that has been variously regarded as a separate species of its own, a subspecies of the African wildcat, or a population of feral house cats that were introduced to Corsica around the beginning of the first millennium.
Felis lunensis, or the Martelli's cat is an extinct felid of the subfamily Felinae.
The fauna of Italy comprises all the animal species inhabiting the territory of the Italian Republic and its surrounding waters. Italy has the highest level of faunal biodiversity in Europe, with over 57,000 species recorded, representing more than a third of all European fauna. This is due to various factors. The Italian peninsula is in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, forming a corridor between central Europe and North Africa, and it has 8,000 km (5,000 mi) of coastline. Italy also receives species from the Balkans, Eurasia, and the Middle East. Italy's varied geological structure, including the Alps and the Apennines, Central Italian woodlands, and Southern Italian Garigue and Maquis shrubland, also contribute to high climate and habitat diversity.
The Sardinians, or Sards, are an Italic Romance language-speaking ethnic group native to Sardinia, from which the western Mediterranean island and autonomous region of Italy derives its name.
Giacomo Damiani was an Italian ichthyologist and ornithologist
The Scottish wildcat is a European wildcat population in Scotland. It was once widely distributed across Great Britain, but the population has declined drastically since the turn of the 20th century due to habitat loss and persecution. It is now limited to northern and eastern Scotland. Camera-trapping surveys carried out in the Scottish Highlands between 2010 and 2013 revealed that wildcats live foremost in mixed woodland, whereas feral and domestic cats were photographed mostly in grasslands.
Raffaello Bellini (1874-1930) was an Italian zoologist.
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