Felis silvestris Schreber 1777

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Carnivora, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 532-628 : 536

Felis silvestris Schreber 1777

Felis silvestris Schreber 1777 , Die Saugethiere, Vol. 3, 23: 397.

Type Locality: Not given. Fixed by Haltenorth (1953) as "vielleicht Nordfrankreich". Listed by Pocock (1951) as " Germany ".

Vernacular Names: Wildcat.

Subspecies: :

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. silvestris Schreber 1777

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. cafra Desmarest 1822

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. caucasica Satunin 1905

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. caudata Gray 1874

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. chutuchta Birula 1916

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. cretensis Haltenorth 1953

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. foxi Pocock 1944

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. gordoni Harrison 1968

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. grampia Miller 1907

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. griselda Thomas 1926

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. haussa Thomas and Hinton 1921

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. iraki Cheesman 1921

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. jordansi Schwarz 1930

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. lybica Forster 1780

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. mellandi Schwann 1904

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. nesterovi Birula 1916

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. ocreata Gmelin 1791

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. ornata Gray 1832

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. reyi Lavauden 1929

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. rubida Schwann 1904

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. tristrami Pocock 1944

Subspecies Felis silvestris subsp. ugandae Schwann 1904

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.

Conservation: CITES – Appendix II; IUCN – Vulnerable as F. s. grampia , otherwise Least Concern.

Discussion: 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 (1957 f) 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, 1978 c). 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. (1997 b) 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.).