The Sardinian wildcat (or, less commonly, the Sardinian lynx) is an isolated population of

feral cat A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...

s (''Felis catus'') on the island of

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

, introduced during the Roman Empire. It has historically been misidentified as a species of

lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, Ontar ...

or a subspecies of

wildcat The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...

. Under the name ''Felis lybica sarda'', it is locally protected as a rare species.

Taxonomic history

The population was first described as a wildcat as ''Felis libyca sarda'' by

Fernand Lataste Fernand Lataste (1847 - 1934) was a French zoologist and herpetologist born in Cadillac, Gironde. From 1880 to 1884 he collected reptiles and amphibians in North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco), publishing ''"Les missions scientifiques de ...

in 1885, based on the skin and skull of a male cat from

Sarrabus Sarrabus-Gerrei is a sub-region of south-eastern Sardinia, Italy. Sarrabus Traditionally Sarrabus, probably from the Roman-time city of Sarcopos, occupies the area of the communes of Castiadas, Muravera, San Vito and Villaputzu, corresponding to ...

in Sardinia, which he wrote resembled an African wildcat but more reddish, grey, and brown, and with longer hairs on the back. Another name, ''Felis mediterranea'', was also proposed for wildcats from Sardinia in 1896. In 1910 it was reclassified as ''Felis ocreate sarda'', while in 1912 it was considered a full species ''Felis sarda'' by Miller. The Sardinian lynx with the

scientific name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Lynx lynx sardiniae'' was proposed by the Italian biologist Pasquale Mola in 1908 for two

zoological specimen A zoological specimen is an animal or part of an animal preserved for scientific use. Various uses are: to verify the identity of a (species), to allow study, increase public knowledge of zoology. Zoological specimens are extremely diverse. Exampl ...

s of a cat from Nuoro in

that were part of the zoological collection of the

University of Sassari The University of Sassari ( it, Università degli Studi di Sassari, UniSS) is a university located in Sassari, Italy. It was founded in 1562 and is organized in 13 departments. The University of Sassari earned first place in the rankings for t ...

. These specimens were reassessed in 1911 by

Alessandro Ghigi Alessandro Ghigi (9 February 1875 – 20 November 1970) was an Italian zoologist, naturalist and environmentalist. Life Alessandro Ghigi was born in Bologna on 9 February 1875. He attended the University of Bologna, graduating with a degree in N ...

who identified them as Sardinian wildcats. Gighi's assessment was corroborated in 1981 by an Italian biologist who examined the still available mounted specimen initially described by Mola. Following taxonomic changes around ''

Felis lybica The African wildcat (''Felis lybica'') is a small wildcat species native to Africa, West and Central Asia up to Rajasthan in India and Xinjiang in China. It has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List in 2022. In Cyprus, an African wil ...

'', an updated name is ''Felis lybica sarda''. The term ''Felis silvestris lybica'' var. ''sarda'', using an outdated name for the African wildcat, was also used in one paper. Results of zooarchaeological research indicate that Sardinian wild cats descended from domestic cats that were introduced around the beginning of the first millennium during the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

, and probably originated in the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

Description

Mola described the body length of these specimens as with a long tail and a shoulder height of . Their long and dense fur was fulvous on the back and whitish on the belly. He considered them to be a crossing of a

and a

domestic cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members o ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3655943 Mammals described in 1908 Pleistocene carnivorans

Taxonomic history

Description

See also

References