Canis lupus hominis

Doug must have been at zoo or nature sanctuary, because he sent me this photo of a European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris).

The wildcat is the ancestor of the domestic cat.

However, the domestic cat is derived from a different subspecies than this one found in Romania.

That subspecies is the African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica). The domestication event for the cat did not occur in Egypt as was previously thought. It turns out that cats were domesticated about 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, which is about the same time that the Agricultural Revolution took off in that same region.

How can an African wildcat be domesticated in Mesopotamia?

Very simple.

Our common names for the subspecies of wildcat do not correspond with geography very well. The subspecies we call the African wildcat is actually quite widespread in the Middle East and Western Asia.

There is also a Southern and East African subspecies that is different from lybica.

That makes things very confusing.

Because cats don’t disperse over vast ranges in the way wolves do, these subspecies are more genetically distinct than wolves subspecies. Cats are territorial and smaller, and those animals tend to have stronger genetic distinctions as one encounters them across their native range.

However one thing is does mess with the genetics of wildcats.

Wildcats will regularly interbreed with domestic cats.

In Europe, virtually all populations have some problems with hybridization. That is one reason why the European subspecies is in so much trouble.

The population in Eastern Europe is believed to be the healthiest and has experienced the least amount of hybridization.

But wildcats are very hard to see in the wild– especially during the day.

So I know this is a captive animal.

As was the bear.

***

When Doug sent me this photo, I got really excited.

From my inbox, it looked like a lynx.

But when I downloaded it and saw it was a cat, I scratched my head.

He actually had to tell me what it was!

I knew about European wildcats, and I knew they lived in Eastern Europe.

But for some reason, I just wasn’t expecting that animal.

I was thinking lynx.

I guess that’s what happens when you send me a photo of on of Ceausescu’s European brown bears.

I start thinking of big predators.

But this one is amazing enough in its own right.

A true rarity.