Should feral cats be regarded as wild cats?

Are feral cats wild animals? No, they are not. It is wrong to regard feral cats as wild cats as one journalist has in an article about TNR in New Zealand (which Kiwis nearly always criticise). Feral cats are really domestic cats that have gone feral. It is important to distinguish between feral domestic cats and true wild cats. They are very different animals. Often feral cats are semi-domesticated at which time they are referred to as community cats.

Feral cats of a well-known Mumbai park. Photo: Mid-day.

A young person may become 'feral' if the parenting is neglectful. Essentially the feral cat is a domestic cat but because they've not been socialised and domesticated, they become fearful of people. This gives the impression that they are wild cats. However, there is a distinct difference between the character of feral cats and wild cats. Note: of course, feral cats are born feral too.

THAT SAID, SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT SOME AUSTRALIAN FERAL CATS HAVE EVOLOVED INTO TRUE WILD CATS!

You can domesticate, through socialisation, a feral cat. It may take a short time if you are dealing with a kitten. If you are dealing with an adult cat, it may take several months or even a year. But it can be done. If you try and domesticate a wild cat you never get to the same point that you would with a feral cat. The wild cat retains their wild character because they do not have 10,000 years of domestication behind them.

10,000 of domestication has resulted, in my view, in the domestic cat carrying that domestication in their DNA. It is gene memory. So, when a domestic kitten is born, all it takes is a little bit of socialisation in the first seven weeks of their life for them to become domesticated. You try doing that with a wild kitten, say a bobcat kitten, and you won't get the same result.

The feral cat and the small wildcat are different animals even if they are pets. Sometimes people like to keep exotic pets and this includes servals, caracals, cheetahs et cetera. These true wild cats always retain a different character when semi-domesticated compared to a feral cat that has been domesticated. Essentially, it is wilder. For the wild cats, that harsh, predator personality is not removed by socialisation.

I say "semi-domesticated" because that is how it happens for the wild cat species when they been socialised. But they feral cat can be completely domesticated to behave exactly like a domestic cat.

What wild cats live in England?

The short answer is that no wild cats live in England. Just north of the border in Scotland there are some Scottish wild cats. They are part of the wildcat species. At one time it was thought there were about 400 of them. Now people believe there may not even be any genuine, purebred Scottish wildcats in Scotland. This is because they have crossbred with domestic cats to become hybrids.

This cat used to live in England but was extirpated and became extinct in England, as I recall, in 1835. This was because it was sport hunted to extinction. That's it. There is nothing more to say to answer the question in the title. It's a sad answer.

When is a Wildcat a Wild Cat?

We know that we have to protect and conserve endangered species and many of the wild cat species are endangered.  One of them is the Scottish wildcat. We also know that we have to deal with stray and feral cats. The way we deal with stray and feral cats is very often to euthanise them; in short, in many places they are killed because they are unwanted.

But in some places such as Scotland, the Scottish wildcat mates with stray and feral cats. This is interbreeding between a protected species and their domestic forms. In technical language the Scottish wildcat becomes an introgressed protected mammal. This means the genes from one species move into the gene pool of another species through interbreeding.

This results in hybrid Scottish wildcats.  The questions are:

• How do you tell a hybrid Scottish wildcat from a purebred wild cat?  There are slight differences so it is possible to do this but it's tricky.
• How do you deal with hybrid Scottish Wildcats?  On the one hand the cat is a feral cat to be disliked and on the other hand the cat is an endangered wild cat species albeit somewhat modified genetically. These are "in between cats".

You can see the difficulty facing conservationists and legislators.  People who create law often legislate about how to deal with stray and feral cats.  When they make these laws they have to define what a feral cat is in order to differentiate the feral cat from other species or types of cats.  Can they do it accurately bearing in mind what I have written above? How do conservationists deal with a melange of a species?

Many of the photographs that you see of Scottish Wildcats are almost certainly hybrids.  Many of the photographs that you see of African wildcats are also hybrids.  As I understand it, the North African wildcat is not yet endangered but when the time comes, as it surely will, to assess the African wildcat as endangered then it may be very difficult to know what to do about it because a lot of the cats will be hybrid domestic cats that look like African wildcats.

Canada: Two Cougars Killed Because They Killed Two Domestic Cats

I'm not sure that this is ethically correct. This is a story from British Columbia, Canada. Just over the border from the USA is a town called Cranbrook. The map shows you where it is.

Last Friday, a couple of days ago, a resident of the town, Karen King, found two dead cats outside her home. She telephoned the conservation officers who had a look at the dead cats. The conservation officers confirmed that cougars were involved in killing the domestic cats.

"We confirmed that, yes, cougars were involved with killing domestic cats," said Jared Connatty, one of the COs

It seems that the way they worked out that two cougars were involved in the killing of these cats was because they carried out an investigation by asking questions of local residents and the residents confirmed that two cougars had been hanging around the area for a few weeks before there were notified.

So what they did was to deploy tracking hounds who picked up the scent of the cougars at the last known location which led them to two juvenile cougars of around 10 months of age where they were killed (I presume shot). The hounds did not pick up the scent of the mother.

The conservation officers were a bit surprised that the mother was not present because cougar cubs don't leave the mother until about 16 to 18 months of age.

To recap: conservation officers who have a duty to conserve nature meaning wildlife decided that the only course of action was to kill two young mountain lions because two domestic cats that were wandering outside had been killed by them on their estimation. Might it not have been a better idea to have told the people living in the area to keep their domestic cat inside for a while and then to track the cougars. Once they had discovered where they were, to then capture them and relocate them. Perhaps that is impractical, I don't know but I do know that it makes more sense to me because I don't think the actions of these conservation officers was proportionate to the “crime" committed by the mountain lions.

I know it is extremely upsetting if one has lost one's cat companion. However, that might be a risk that one takes when living in Canada knowing full well that there are quite possibly mountain lions in the area. Knowing that, a cat owner therefore puts their cat companion in risk if they let them go outside wandering.

There is no information as to whether the two domestic cats were in fact domestic cats, strays or feral cats. There appears to be no complaint by a cat owner. It would seem that the reason why the conservation officers killed the mountain lions was because whenever a mountain lion wanders into a residential area they are killed on the basis that they are a potential hazard to residents. Once again I find that a poor way of dealing with the situation. If people build residential areas within the distribution of mountain lions then they are knowingly taking the possible risk of a mountain lion walking around their urban environment. On that basis, surely they can devise some method of dealing with mounted lives more humanely so that humans and wild cat can live harmoniously together?

These were young mountain lions and therefore relatively small in size and I will thought unable to genuinely harm people. They could have been dealt with more humanely. That is the point I'm making.

Ohio Restrictions on Private Captive Wildlife Programs

Ohian legislators have responded to the horrifying carnage of wild animals, including large wild cats, at Zanesville, Ohio. It is referred to as the Zanesville massacre. It occurred on October 19, 2011. It was the classic, private zoo disaster waiting to happen and it could happen again. Neither do I believe it was a freak event.

The silver lining to come out of this very sad story is that legislation backed by HSUS was introduced into Ohio's state legislature and has been passed and become law. It was a speedy bit of law making prompted by the shock of the event.

Of course, keepers of exotic cats etc. were against it. It is one more piece of legislation that erodes the freedoms of Americans to indulge their passion for interacting with exotic animals. The trouble is that ultimately it is an indulgent hobby (it does not pay). And to be brutally honest I don't think it does anything or hardly anything for conservation although the benefits to conservation is the argument used by keepers of exotic animals for doing it. Personally, I don't go with that argument which is why I support more legislation that restricts people's freedoms. This is unfortunate but sadly people do need to be managed to a certain extent because not everyone acts responsibly.

Since the 1980s there has been an explosion in wildlife breeding. That is one reason why it became a risk to both public and the animals. Ohio had some of the weakest laws on the keeping of exotic 'pets'. This is how some so called 'conservationists' relate to their dangerous wild animals.

What sort of restrictions will soon be in place? And how will this impact privately owned captive wildlife programs?

Legislation

I will summarize because people involved in keeping captive wildlife will read the legislation carefully, while those outside it don't want boring legal details.

The new restrictions appear to be concerned with 'dangerous exotic animals'. People who already keep them can still do so. But they will have to apply for a permit by January 1st 2014 and their application is not going to be a walkover. The cost of permits range from $250-$1,000. Insurance cover might have to be in the region of a quarter of a million dollars to one million with the premiums that that brings to the owner.

On September 3rd 2012, when the law comes into effect, the trade in exotic animals will be banned with a few exceptions. Approximately 640 species are wild animal fall under the new law.

Wild animals classified as dangerous include: lions, tigers, jaguars and cheetahs. There are exemptions for genuine sanctuaries, zoos and research institutions for instance.

Impact

I'll have to refer to what Lynn Culver the Executive Director of the Feline Conservation Federation (FCF) says, which is that privately owned captive wildlife in Ohio will be extremely rare in the future. People who want to get into wildlife ownership and breeding will now be critically scrutinised, or should be, by the USDA. They will need proven skills and knowledge. The FCF run courses that will help. There is no doubt that the laissez-faire days of letting people buy lions for peanuts are over. People should consider applying for ZAA (Zoological Association of America)  accreditation as they register breeders and apparently they have an exemption.

People's energies and love of wild cats etc. should be channeled into true wildlife conservation in the wild as practiced by people like Jim Sanderson PhD (Andean Mountain Cat and other species) and the Snow Leopard Trust. They both run fantastic conservation programmes.

A Very Important Cat Event

Two Amur leopards have been born in captivity at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation (WHF) in Smarden, Kent, UK. Why is this an important world cat event? There are thought to be about 35-40 Amur leopards in the wild in the far east of Russia, in a region called Primorskii Krai through which the River Amur flows. It is also the region where the Amur tiger lives (Siberian tiger).

I think this figure of 35-40 is actually incorrect. It comes from newspapers and is the conventional view but a more scientific and modern assessment is 12 Amur leopards in the wild. Yes, exactly 12. Strange isn't it? 

Add to that the 100-140 Amur leopards in captivity in Europe as part of a European breeding program and you have about 150 Amur leopards in the world excluding those in America and other continents. It seems there are about 200-300 in captivity in total worldwide. They are the rarest big cats in the world.

It would seem doubtful that the wild Amur leopard can survive because of genetic diversity - it is too low and inbreeding sets in causing sterility. Habitat loss is a major threat. The leopard has the widest range of all the wild cats. The Amur leopard is one of 9 subspecies of the leopard.

It is sad to think that these cute little cubs will never live in the wild. See a page on the leopard.

Interested? Why do leopards have spots?

Food Selection in Domestic Cats

There is no question that cats have food preferences. Some cats are finickity eaters. For me, one of the most important factors in feeding cats is variety. Cats do become bored with their food if they are fed the same food day in and day out. They will eat it if hungry enough but you will see signs of boredom with a certain food if it is provided monotonously.

It may be a food that he liked but now seems to dislike. A change to something else for a while will rejuvenate his interest in the food that he became bored with. The different food may even be a food that in the past he did not show a great interest in, yet all of sudden he likes it. There is a counter argument though that says that we should not try too hard, too often, to please our cat as it can lead to cat obesity, a modern cat health problem. It is about good cat caretaking ultimately.

There is the perennial question of whether cats will eat dog food or food that is missing vital nutrients. Apparently cats cannot tell through taste if a food presented to them is deficient in nutrients or if it is not a balanced food. However, if a deficient food is provided for a long time a cat will eat less of it or refuse it because he will learn that the taste of the food is connected to the illness that he suffers as a consequence of eating it. This is not an accurate assessment by a cat, obviously, as feeling unwell may be due to a reason unconnected with the food eaten.

We are told that the palatability of food is decided on taste primarily. However, in my experience, the domestic cat will smell food as a initial check on palatability and perhaps to see if it is a type that he has liked before. Cats don't seem to be able to check visually at close range. It is down to smell then taste.

It seems that today, in the modern world (2012), cats can fail to self regulate intake resulting in obesity. This may be due to overfeeding treats. If treats of human cooked food are more palatable than commercially available cat food what does that tell us about the palatability of cat food or the drift to human preferences by the domestic cat? My cat prefers human cooked food, most times not always.

A cat's taste buds are located on the tongue - upper surface and back of tongue - and on the palate. A cat's taste buds can detect the freshness of food. This is based on taste bud receptors that can detect certain chemicals in the tissues of dead animals. It seems that the quantity and therefore strength of taste of these chemicals informs the cat as to how fresh the food is e.g. how long the prey has been dead. Cats don't like carrion (carcasses of dead animals).

Cat's can detect amino acids that contain sulphur. Taurine is in this category and an essential ingredient for a cat. Accordingly, cats are able to gauge palatability based on the taurine content of food (taurine deficiency in cats and taurine for Bengal cats).

Cats don't like sweet foods. Although there is a lot of sugar in dry cat food. It is a hidden ingredient.

As to feral cats, they prefer voles, young rabbits and hares over mice and rats. Mice and are caught not always eaten. Shrews are rarely eaten after being caught. This is put down to the diet of the shew: insects.

Small wild cats make several kills in a 24 hour day. Some travel miles at night in search of food. It is very challenging. The mode of feeding of wild cats and feral cats - small prey, frequent feeding - dictates how we feed our domestic cat. You'll notice that cats eat less and more frequently than humans. This is hard wired from the wild cat ancestor, the African wildcat.

Geriatric cats lose their sense of taste and smell so need a high palatability cat food if they have a weight loss problem. Old cats do lose weight.

Associated: Feeding feral cats.

Cat Abuse A Theory

Our natural tendency to be respectful towards the domestic cat has been compromised by the fact that the cat is domesticated. It is an interesting theory.

A research scientist, Serpell (published in 1999), examined animal abuse from the perspective of the history of our relationship with animals. At the time when there were no domestic animals of any sort more than 10,000 years ago all humans were hunter-gatherers. People either hunted for food or gathered it where it grew. Then along came domestication of the cat on the back of farming and the domestication of animals for food.

Before the domestication of animals people respected the animal as independent creatures. The hunters met them and killed them on the animal's own territory and on the animal's terms. I think you will find that at one time Native Americans had this sort respect for the animals that they hunted.

Domestication of the cat resulted in the human having control of the cat. The modern domestic cat's life is dictated to by his human companion or "owner". The owner controls the environment under which the cat lives. The cat responds to that.

The human/cat household is a "human-centered world". The equality between human and animal is thrown away. The human has domination over the cat.

If then you combine human domination with a lack of education or poor experiences, which conditions the potential abuser to believe that abuse is acceptable, you can end up with cat abuse.

The underlying problem that creates the conditions under which cat abuse takes place is the fact that the cat is domesticated. That is the theory.

It is interesting to note that abuse of the wildcats, particularly the tiger emanates from fear of the animal turned into its commercialization. The commercialization of fear. This is my opinion.

Sport hunting of wild cats no longer has any connection with the ancient need to hunt for food or survive. It is a further abuse of the cat driven by the need for entertainment. It could be argued that sport hunting also stems from a lack of respect for animals cultivated by their domestication.

Tame Cat vs Socialised Cat

There is a difference between tame and socialised. That might be obvious to a lot of people but I'd like to see it I can define the difference. I have just made a simple video called 'Jaguarundi Vocalisation' (see below). It is in the singular because it concerns the bundle of sounds jaguarundi kittens make when fighting over food. They remind me of the sounds F2 Savannah kittens make when play fighting. These are the sounds of wildcats - (turn the volume down on your computer!). Although F2 Savannahs are really domestic cats with a hint of the wild (F2 means: second generation from the wild serval). Read about jaguarundi sounds.

Jaguarundis are meant to make reasonable domestic animals. People have tamed them. I hesitate to say 'reasonable domestic companion animal' because I don't think a tamed wildcat, albeit a small one, can truly become a companion animal. I could be wrong but there is a barrier that prevents the kind of connection that you get between the domestic cat and the person. That barrier has been broken down by 10, 000 years or so of domestication. It takes a long time.

Which leads me to the difference between a tame cat and a socialised cat. A tame wild cat will be subdued and you can live with such a cat. The wildness has been more or less taken out of the cat. They become 'tractable' (capable of being controlled or led).

But a socialised cat has gone a step further to the point where he or she can relate and interact more with the human companion. There is a deeper connection. Socialisation takes place during the first 7 weeks of life of the kitten when the kitten gets thoroughly used to being around a person (and other animals if needed).

The difference is not black and white. They is a grey scale because a poorly socialised domestic cat will be similar to a thoroughly tamed wild cat.

I have met tamed servals (see: Morpheus and Penelope). One of the servals was socialised (neither Morpheus nor Penelope are socialised). However, you feel the wild character underneath the tameness. This is good. A wild cat should be that. They are at their best when magnificently wild; terrifying, aggressive, top rate predators and survivors. We are better off admiring them from afar. They are better off too.

If you socialise a wildcat in the same way you socialise a domestic cat, you get more than a tamed wildcat but less than a socialised domestic cat.

Serval Kills 4,000 Rodents A Year

The servals of the Serengeti kill 4,000 rodents, 260 snakes and 130 birds each year on average. Servals on average make 0.8 kills per hour in the daytime and 0.5 kills per hour during nighttime (or 1 kill every 2 hours).

They do this hunting/killing while covering the territory at 2.5 kills for every kilometer travelled during the day and at 1.9 kills for every kilometer travelled at night. Young servals (juveniles) kill more frequently at 4.2 kills per kilometer.

Obviously servals don't kill in a routine manner so there will be extended periods when kills do not take place.

The study of kill rates is part of "hunting energetics". Energetics is the study of the transformation of energy. In this instance the amount of energy needed in the form of consumed prey to sustain the serval in his activities including hunting.

By comparison the lynx in the north of Sweden make 1.2 kills every 24 hours. That is much less than the serval.  It is less in the south at 0.6 kills/24 hours and even lower in the east at 0.3 kills/24 hours.

I wonder how many rodents a year the feral cat kills? If there are 80 million feral cats in the USA and each one kills 500 rodents per year that makes 40 billion rodents killed by feral cats yearly. That's a bit of a thought.

Source: page 90 of The Natural History of the Wild Cats by Andrew Kitchener. ISBN 0-8014-8498-7

New Species of Leopard?

March 28th 2012: Apparently a leopard with a distinctly different appearance has been spotted in the well known Sunderbans National Park that is situated in West Bengal, India. The Sunderbans (also spelled, "Sundarbans") is well known as one of the better Bengal tiger reserves.

The key question is whether the cat that was seen was in fact a mutated version of an existing species rather than a new species. It would be surprising if a new species of leopard was discovered at this stage. Classic examples of wild cats that are mutations of existing species and not therefore a new species are white tigers and black leopards. Other black wildcats such as the serval are simply melanistic cats with almost black coats and ghost patterns.

The number of wild cat species is settled (we think) at 36. This is a slimmed down number from 100 years ago when, based on appearance, there was a tendency to assess wild cats as different species when they were not, at least by modern scientific standards.

We will await further news with interest. Let's hope that the cat is safe as there are a lot of people in the Sunderbans and you do get human/wildcat conflicts that almost invariable result in the cat ultimately being killed.

Update: it is melanistic - unsurprisingly. And apparently smaller than a leopard. There is talk of it being a melanistic leopard cat. Leopard cats (Asian leopard cats) are small cats the size of a domestic cat so this story is scrambled. Probably just press hype. I think the story originated in the Times of India.

See: leopard subspecies.

A cure for a serval with bladder stones

This is a nice story by Dolly Guck about her domesticated serval "Sawabu" who developed a urinary tract infection (UTI) and who had calcium oxalate stones in his bladder. The urinary tract problems were first noticed when Sawabu was doing one of his tricks at a public meeting. He embarrassingly peed on a table. This is the exact same symptom you get with domestic cats who have urinary infections. For my cat it was cystitis. The urine is bloody too - readily noticeable.

X-rays revealed the bladder stones and the vet decided to operation to remove them. Calcium oxalate crystals cannot dissolved naturally through a change in diet hence the need to physically remove them. The operation went well. The stones were about one centimeter in diameter (think the size of the nail of your little finger).

The vet administered antibiotics, the standard treatment for UTIs. Sawabu was well bahaved throughout. He had to wear a protective collar and he put up it with just like a domestic cat.

The interesting bit is this. What caused the stones? What was the underlying condition that prompted the development of the infection?

Dolly does not say in her article and her vet does not say either. However the cure does tell us I think. A colleague of the vet recommended a diet of Royal Canin High Protein Calorie Control canned food - three cans per day. Sawabu's diet to that point was some raw plus "crunchy Mazuri" and Zupreem canned small feline. Sawabu did not like the Royal Canin but Dolly practiced tough love and made him eat it. Good thing too.

I will presume that crunchy Mazuri is specialist dry cat food for "exotic felines". It is dry cat food (kibble) for domesticated wildcats I'd say. It might have been Mazuri Exotic Feline-Small (25 lb) - 5M54. Zupreem Exotic Feline Food is canned (wet) exotic cat food - canned food for wild cats.

It would seem to me that the underlying cause or at least one of the underlying causes or a compounding factor was the dry cat food. Sawabu liked it. He may have eaten too much of it. Dr. Hodgkins in her book Your Cat (a book about cat health and nutrition) concludes with a firm conviction that dry cat food is the cause of many UTIs. I can confirm that my cat was cured of her cystitis by taking her off dry cat food and feeding wet with added water.

Dry cat food can cause mild dehydration because cats don't compensate by drinking more water. The urine becomes concentrated and the flow slower promoting bacterial growth and stones. As I understand it, that is the theory in outline.

The Royal Canin wet food prescribed worked nicely over time and stopped the stones returning. I am not sure what it contains other than it is wet and therefore contains a lot more water. Wet cat food is more natural for a cat domestic or wild. The Royal Canin wet food prescribed might also contain less of certain minerals etc to reduce the possibility of formation of stones.

Moral: feed wet cat food and specialist raw food to a domesticated serval as an ideal. Obviously Sawabu is just one cat and I am sure some people who keep servals feed dry cat food but it should only be as a part of the overall diet.

There is one other compounding factor that I am aware of that can predispose a cat to UTIs: stress. Without being critical (Dolly is a very caring human companion to Buddy) but Buddy may have been stressed for whatever reason. The obvious one being a lack of space in which to exercise natural behavior.

See also Urinary Tract Infections.

Source for story: Feline Conservation Federation magazine Jan/Feb 2012 Vol 56 Issue 1.

Difference Between Leopard and Cheetah

In order to fully compare the difference between the leopard and cheetah I think we need to look at the following: size and weight, appearance, prey, habitat, range and status in the wild. For the time being I have left out socialisation and reproduction and development.

Size and Weight

This part is easy. The leopard and the cheetah are the fifth and sixth largest wildcats on the planet respectively. The leopard is slightly heavier than the cheetah. The leopard weighs between 17 and 70 kgs while the cheetah weighs between 21 and 65 kgs. There is not much difference. They are similar is size. They are the "same general size". The major difference is that the cheetah is about 7.6 cms taller. The leopard has a greater weight and size difference across its range than the cheetah because the distribution of the leopard is so extensive.

Appearance

There is, however, a big difference between the leopard and cheetah in appearance. The cheetah does not have the heavy, stocky, muscular body and limbs of other large wildcats. It is a slim and slender wildcat with a very supple spine and a deep chest. The cheetah is a sprinter, a greyhound-like large wildcat. The leopard is more a decathlete, more an all rounder.

The whiskers of the cheetah are short and fine compared to the leopard's cheek whiskers. Whiskers play less of a role in catching prey for the cheetah.

The cheetah "has small canines because it runs so fast". It kills by strangulation and its bite force is less than that of the leopard. The neck bite that severs the spinal cord requires greater force. The leopard employs this method of killing smaller prey and the throat bite for larger prey. The cheetah's canines are smaller than those of the leopard.

The leopard has relatively short legs compared to the cheetah. This page shows the difference between the leopard and cheetah spots.

See cheetah description and leopard picture (appearance) and leopard description for more.

Prey

Leopard prey is extremely wide in its range. It will kill whatever it can catch. Its diet mainly consists of small to medium-sized animals (5-45 kgs). The cheetah mostly feeds on medium sized ungulates (hooved animals) in the 20-50 kg range but most are under 40 kgs.

The cheetah chases prey and runs it down through sheer speed. The leopard's final charge is short, in contrast stalking to within 4 meters in northeastern Namibia.We know that the cheetah can run at a maximum of about 65-70 mph for short bursts while the leopard probably has a top speed of about 45-50. See cheetah speed.

Distribution

The leopard has the widest distribution of all the wildcats from Africa through to eastern Asia while the cheetah is essentially found in Africa with a possible small population in Iran. See leopard habit/range and cheetah geographic range.

Habitat

Due to the very wide distribution of the leopard it is found in wide range of habitats. They can live in any type of habitat except true desert. The cheetah habitat is classically the flat grassy plains of Namibia. It likes arid semi-open grassland, savanna, semi-desert and even even mountain regions.

Status

The IUCN Red List classifies the leopard as Near Threatened while the cheetah is classified as Vulnerable. The range of classifications is as follows:

You can see that the cheetah is in a more precarious situation regarding its survival than the leopard. See a page on the IUCN Red for all wild cats.

Source: Wild Cats of the World ISBN-13: 978-0-226-77999-7 and myself.

Are there wild cats in England?

ANSWER: NO. We, the animal loving Brits, killed all the wildcats in England centuries ago! The last remaining wildcats are in the north of Scotland, an area with a low human population compared to most of England, where the last 400 wildcats in the UK can live in relative peace. These are called Scottish wildcats. The problem is that we aren't sure how many of this small population of cats are actually purebred because they mate with domestic cats. Are there any purebred wildcats in Scotland?

European Wildcat Facts

Uncertainties in taxonomy with respect to the wildcat makes it more difficult to provide solid European wildcat facts. By taxonomy I mean the scientific classification of the subspecies of the wildcat. The wildcat is a species of wild cat - it's a bit confusing.

At December 2011, the experts seem to have agreed, at least for the time being, that there are five subspecies of wildcat, one of which is the European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris). The other four are:

1. Chinese desert (mountain) cat - Felis silvestris bieti
2. Asiatic wildcat - Felis silvestris ornata
3. African wildcat or Near Eastern wildcat - Felis silvestris lybica  
4. Southern African wildcat - Felis silvestris cafra

The Scottish wildcat is not considered a subspecies despite what the Scottish Wildcat Association say (Felis silvestris grampia).

Description

The overriding feature of the appearance of the European wildcat is that you could almost be looking at a domestic tabby cat. The size is similar although the wildcat is the size of a large domestic cat. The markings and coat texture are distinctly wild in appearance. By this I mean more natural as a form of camouflage. The background color is brown/grey and ticked hair strands. There are dark stripes on the torso, limbs and head. The tail is banded with a black tip. This cat has a the tabby "M" mark on the forehead. You can see that the distant ancestor of the current domestic cat is a wildcat (Near Eastern wildcat in fact).

Distribution

There must be some overlap between the European and Asiatic wildcat I would have thought.  The range of the European subspecies is very wide extending beyond the political boundary of what is considered Europe. It is fragmented however and populations are diminishing. In some countries such as the Netherlands it has been extirpated.

Habitat

The wide distribution means a wide variety of habitats depending on the area. The common denominator is cover for the cat to hide, rest, hunt and give birth. Woodlands, pine forests, rocks and undergrowth provide cover. This wildcat will inhabit montane forests in Eastern Europe.

European wildcat  - photo by Joachim S. Müller

Prey

Rodents primarily mice, rats and voles and also birds are the prey. Killing chicks has been a source of consternation for the game bird business resulting in gamekeepers killing the wild cat in parts of continental Europe.

Reproduction

Gestation (pregnancy) is 63-69 days. Litter size: 1-8 kittens. Kittens eat solids (mice) at 6 weeks and go out to the big wide world at 10-12 weeks of age. Two litters per year may be the case for some females.

Status in the Wild

This concerns and assessment of the European wildcat's position regarding survivability in the wild. This is a difficult task that the IUCN Red List^TM take charge of. Their experts say the cat is of Least Concern. Threats are persecution by people, habitat loss and prey loss.

Chinese Desert Cat

This is a mobile version of a larger article on the Chinese desert cat, which is little known. Only recently was it classified as a subspecies of the wildcat (Driscoll et al 2007 based in genetic analysis).

It has the appearance of the cats of the species Felis silvestris. It looks like a wildcat, that is the species of cat called, "wildcat". They also look somewhat like domestic cats. They should because the domestic cat is a domesticated wildcat (African and Eurasian).

Name

• Chinese mountain cat
• Chinese desert cat
• Chinese steppe cat
• Scientific name: Felis silvestris bieti or Felis silvestris ssp. bieti. These are the same, just different ways of presenting the name. A scientist named, Milne-Edwards, first classified this species of cat in 1892. He classified it Felis bieti.

Description

Chinese desert cat - photograph copyright Jim Sanderson.

The Chinese desert cat looks similar to a very large domestic cat that is wild in appearance and which has a ticked yellow-gray coat and a thick, fluffy banded tail with a black tip.

It has lighter undersides and brown stripes on the cheeks. The chin is white. The skull is broad.

Distribution

This map gives an indication as to its distribution. It is a little imprecise because, as I said, little is known about this cat. The map is based on the IUCN Red List™ map.

It inhabits China (including Tibetan Plateau) and Mongolia. China includes Tibet. China has sovereignty over Tibet.

Habitat

This cat's name is misleading as it lives in rocky terrain and not desert as we know it. But the habitat includes semi-desert and alpine meadows and montane forest. I have a picture: of the Tibetan Plateau:

Tibetan Plateau - Photograph copyright reurinkjan

Prey

Primary prey is the rock rabbit (pika). It also feeds on rodents generally, lizards and birds. Rodents make up 90% of prey.

Pika - Photograph copyright reurinkjan

Reproduction

Mating happens from January to March.  Births are usually in May. Burrows are used as birth dens. Litters: 2-4 offspring.

Status

Listed as Vulnerable by IUCN Red List™ due to loss of prey the pika which is poisoned by locals. The Chinese desert cat is rare and populations are declining. It is also hunted for its skin.

See larger article.

Wild Cats of Canada

A list of wild cats of Canada and links to more information. The distribution of three of the world's wild cat species include the country of Canada:

1. Puma
2. Canada lynx
3. Bobcat

You would have thought that there might have been more. Of these three the puma is probably the most interesting in that this wild cat is also found in South America an entirely different and contrasting environment. The puma has the widest geographic range of any terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere¹. The puma is highly adaptable. The puma has many names, causing a bit of confusion. "Cougar" is perhaps the most common or mountain lion". "Puma" is arguably more accurate as it is part of its full scientific name: Puma concolor. Both "cougar" and "puma" have been adopted by people; "cougar" refers to a predatory older female human! And if you Google search for "puma", at the top of the results is the well known sports manufacturer.

The Canada lynx is about one half the size of its European counterpart, the Eurasian lynx. This is because the Canada lynx has specialised in feeding on the snowshoe, small sized prey. The Canada lynx weighs about 8-11 kgs.

The bobcat is mainly distributed throughout the United States but its range creeps north into Canada. The bobcat is a medium sized wildcat with desirable fur that feeds on hares, rabbit and deer or beaver depending on availability of prey.

See and read more by starting on this page: wild cat species.

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Wild Cats of the World (ISBN-13: 978-0-226-77999-7) - page 254.

Small Wild Cats of South America

A list of small wild cats of South America. What is small? I have decided that "small" for wildcats means any size up to and including the size of an average domestic cat. On that basis 70% of the wild cat species of South America are included. There are as follows in increasing order of size (the largest of the small wildcats is at the bottom of this list):

1. Oncilla - 1.5 - 2.8 kg
2. Kodkod - 1.5 - 2.8 kg
3. Pampas cat - 1.7 - 3.7 kg
4. Margay - 3 - 4 kg
5. Andean Mountain cat - 4 - 5 kg
6. Geoffroy's cat - 2.6 - 6.5 kg
7. Jaguarundi - 3.5 - 7 kg

I have excluded: ocelot, puma and jaguar. You will find different weights for these cats on the internet. This is probably because information develops as we are still studying these cats. See also wild cat species by size.

You can see pictures and detailed text about these cats starting on this page: wild cat species.

Or see a page on the wild cat species of South America, which includes thumbnail range maps.

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Source: Wild Cats of the World (ISBN-13: 978-0-226-77999-7) - this is the best book on the wild cats.

Wild Cats of South America

A list of the wildcats of South America in a spreadheet plus range map details and links to more. The wildcats are, in descending order of size: jaguar, puma, ocelot, jaguarundi, Geoffroy's cat, Andean mountain cat, margay, pampas cat and oncilla. Please go to the wild cat species page to see the wildcats of the world.



Selected associated pages:

• Jaguar photograph
• Jaguarundi photograph

Margay Photograph

This is an-in-your-face Margay photograph. It is a camera trap photograph, as you can see.  It is not a pretty picture of a margay in captivity. The cat is too close to the camera to be sharp. It had to be sharpened. I also added the text which is allowed under the license and I modified the tones as well. The photo is by Smithsonian Wild. Thank you for the license to publish it. The license to publish this photograph allows you to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and to make derivative work.

Margay in Peru - photo by Smithsonian Wild under creative commons.

What about the appearance of the margay, which, by the way, is probably the best climber of all the world's cats, wild or domestic?

Showing long tail - Photo by siwild

This is a small, slender, lightweight cat with a long tail for balance. These attributes are all designed for living in trees (arboreal habits). The donut (doughnut in the UK) shaped spots interest me. They are very clear in this photograph. These are called "open spots". They are dark brown or black in color while the centers are pale.

The eyes are massive in comparison to the size of the head. Usually a cat's eyes are 8 times bigger than ours in relation to head size but the margay looks like an exception. They are even larger. This wild cat must be nocturnal. The flash of the camera trap photograph supports that. This individual cat was active at night. Research indicates that it is, in general, most active between 1am and 5 am.

The margay is similar in appearance to the oncilla and ocelot. However, it is smaller than the ocelot and has a longer tail despite very similar coat markings. See ocelot picture for comparison.

The fur of the margay is soft and thick. The margay expends energy at an unusually low rate when at rest.