Mammals of the WorldAfrican Wildcat
Felis lybica
- Order
- Carnivora
- Family
- Felidae
- Genus
- Felis
- IUCN status
- LC
- Distribution
- France|Italy|Greece|Morocco|Algeria|Tunisia|Libya|Egypt|Mauritania|Mali|Senegal|Gambia|Guinea-Bissau|Guinea|Sierra Leone|Cote d'Ivoire?|Burkina Faso|Ghana|Togo|Benin|Niger|Nigeria|Chad|Cameroon|Central African Republic|Sudan|South Sudan|Eritrea|Ethiopia|Djibouti|Somalia|Kenya|Uganda|Democratic Republic of the Congo|Tanzania|Republic of the Congo|Angola|Zambia|Malawi|Mozambique|Zimbabwe|Namibia|Botswana|South Africa|Eswatini|Lesotho|Israel|Palestine|Jordan|Lebanon|Syria|Saudi Arabia|Turkey|Azerbaijan|Armenia|Yemen|Oman|United Arab Emirates|Iraq|Iran|Turkmenistan|Uzbekistan|Kazakhstan|Kyrgyzstan|Tajikistan|Afghanistan|Pakistan|India|China|Mongolia
- Realm
- Afrotropic|Palearctic
Other names: Desert Cat|Asiatic (Asian) Steppe Wildcat|Indian Desert Cat
About this species
- Diet
- Primarily small animal prey
- Habitat
- Desert, savanna, shrubland, grassland, and steppe
- Range
- Africa and western to Central Asia, reaching Xinjiang
The African wildcat is a small cat with short sandy-grey fur, pale vertical flank stripes, and dark facial markings. Two dark rings cross the forelegs, the hind legs are striped, and the tapering tail has two or three dark rings near a black tip. The belly and throat are much paler than the upperparts. The Asiatic form is often more spotted. It is closely related to and ancestral to the domestic cat, and hybrids occur where the two overlap, making confident field identification difficult without expert assessment. (Wikipedia, general species account)
The species tolerates environments ranging from desert and semiarid steppe to savanna, shrubland, and grassland. Its documented Asian range extends through the Middle East and Central Asia to Xinjiang in western China. The source opened for this entry does not name Mongolia, while the site's Mammal Diversity Database evidence does. That discrepancy means this account should not be read as confirmation of a Mongolian wild population; no national habitat, locality, or behaviour is claimed pending review of the checklist record and possible taxonomic interpretation. (Wikipedia, general species account; Mammal Diversity Database)
Description: Wildlife of Mongolia guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)