African wildcat リビアヤマネコ

The African wildcat is a small wild cat found widely from Africa to western and central Asia. Genetic studies suggest that house cats around the world are descended from its subspecies F. l. lybica. It looks very much like a house cat but has longer legs and reddish-brown backs to its ears. It is listed as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, but hybridization with house cats is a serious problem.

It is about the size of a large house cat, with a head-and-body length of 40–80 cm and a weight of about 2–8 kg. The coat ranges from sandy or tawny to grey, and markings vary by region: African animals have faint stripes, while the Asian subspecies is more clearly spotted. The legs are banded, and the backs of the ears are reddish-brown. The tail is fairly thin and tapering, with a few black rings and a black tip. It has longer legs than a house cat, and when it sits its body is held almost upright.

It lives alone and is mainly active at night, though it is sometimes seen by day. It feeds mainly on rodents such as gerbils and jerboas and on hares, and also eats birds, lizards, snakes and insects. Gestation lasts about 56–68 days, and litters are of 1–6 kittens.

It is found across much of Africa and, via the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East, as far as central Asia, India, China and Mongolia. It also lives on Mediterranean islands such as Sardinia and Corsica, but these island populations are thought to have been introduced by people long ago. It is absent from rainforests and the hearts of large deserts. The 2017 classification recognizes three subspecies: F. l. lybica in northern, eastern and western Africa and the Middle East, F. l. cafra in southern Africa, and F. l. ornata from southwestern to central Asia.

It lives in a wide range of habitats, including semi-desert, savanna, scrubland and dry woodland, and is found up to about 3,000 m.

It is believed to be the ancestor of all house cats, rather than of any one particular breed. A study by Driscoll and colleagues published in 2007 analysed the DNA of about 980 cats from around the world, showed that house cats descend from Near Eastern populations of the African wildcat, and discussed the possibility that domestication began through their association with early farming villages. On Cyprus, a cat was found buried beside a human grave about 9,500 years old (published in 2004). An ancient-DNA study published in 2017 showed that populations from both the Near East and Egypt contributed to the spread of house cats. A study published in 2025 concluded that house cats spread into Europe about 2,000 years ago, probably from North Africa. Research on the origin and spread of house cats is still continuing.

In the IUCN Red List assessment published in 2022, it is listed as Least Concern (LC). Population trends differ by region and are unclear. It is listed in CITES Appendix II. One major threat is hybridization with house cats, which could lead to the loss of genetically pure African wildcats. Poaching, habitat loss, road traffic and diseases from feral cats are also concerns.

It was described in 1780 by the German naturalist Georg Forster, based on an animal from near Gafsa in Tunisia. For a long time it was treated as a subspecies of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris), but the 2017 classification of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group recognized it as a separate species.