Felis Lybica Sarda (Gatto selvatico sardo)

The Sardinian lynx or Sardinian wildcat 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

Eurasian lynx The Eurasian lynx (''Lynx lynx'') is a medium-sized wild cat widely distributed from Northern, Central and Eastern Europe to Central Asia and Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. It inhabits temperate and boreal forests up to an eleva ...

(''Lynx lynx'') and an

African wildcat 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 ...

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

Description as ''Lynx''

The Sardinian lynx with the scientific name ''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 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 of ...

from

Nuoro Nuoro ( or less correctly ; sc, Nùgoro ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte Ortobene. It is the capital of the province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,347 (2011), ...

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 ...

. These specimens were reassessed in 1911 by Alessandro Ghigi who identified them as Sardinian wildcats ('' Felis lybica''). Gighi's assessment was corroborated in 1981 by an Italian biologist who examined the still available mounted specimen initially described by Mola. 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 lynx and a domestic cat.

Description as ''Felis''

The population was first described as a wildcat as ''Felis silvestris sarda'' . Following taxonomic changes around ''Felis lybica'', an updated name is ''Felis lybica sarda''. The term ''Felis silvestris lybica'' var. ''sarda'', using an outdated name for the African wildcat, is also seen. 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 Mediter ...

, and probably originated in the Near East.

References

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

Description as ''Lynx''

Description as ''Felis''

See also

References