Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing wildcats. We’re wild about cats here, subscribe if you are, too! Thank you to vinvinaid and everyone else for today’s request. Say hello to the ancestors of Chester, as well as every other domestic house cat. Wildcats are generally separated into two species, European wildcats and Africa and Asian wildcats, through which domestic house cats are typically considered a subspecies or their own species depending on who you ask. Wildcats can live in nearly all environments including open grasslands, scrublands, deciduous forests, coastal and mountainous areas... but they really aren’t fans of true deserts and dense jungles - those locales are reserved for other species of the felis genus.

Nearly all European and African and Asian wildcats have tails that end with a black tip, though European wildcats tend to look stockier with denser fur - likely due to their more northward and thus colder climate habitats. They all also generally have longer legs than their domestic counterparts. When wildcats sit upright, their backs are almost vertical, this has changed in domestic cats where their backs form more of a curve.

Wildcats also generally appear in browns and greys with patchy stripes and spots in order to help them blend in with their environment, but domestic cats don’t have to worry so much about this so they come in all kinds of colors and patterns. Even the common domestic black coloration seems to be non-existent in wild cat varieties - either that or they’re exceptionally superstitious...

Domestic cats are strongly believed to come from African and Asian wildcat ancestors, though they can still bear some striking similarities to European wildcats. Observations of European wildcats has shown that they aren’t great contenders for domestication because they are fearful and can become quite aggressive, but African and Asia wildcats may have been living alongside humans as far back as the dawn of agriculture. Human grain storage attracted rodents and rodents attracted wildcats. The humans found this quite advantageous and continued the trend until today. Many people claim this is the reason wildcats “domesticated themselves”. Ahh cats. Choosing to fill our newsfeeds as far back as ancient Egypt times.

Catching rodents is a specialty of wildcats, but they also take rabbits, insects, snakes, lizards, eggs, spiders, birds, and even the occasional baby deer or antelope. Yeah, deer; they’re that good. Wildcats themselves are threatened by feral dogs, foxes, wolves, hawks, owls, and even other cats. The mortality rate of wildcats before reaching their first year of life is high, but they can live upwards of fifteen years. Domestic cats may live even longer as they tend to have fewer threats - though an empty food bowl can be quite threatening.

Domestic cats are able to interbreed with both European and African and Asian wildcat species. This is actually a detriment to wildcat genetics. Though wildcats are listed as least concern on the IUCN redlist of threatened species, some researchers believe that purely wild European wildcats may no longer exist with all populations having hybridized at some point with domestic cats. That might not sound like a problem because cats are really awesome, but it would mean the loss of a species if it was proven to be accurate.

When they aren’t co-mingling with the domestics, wildcats usually only have one litter of kittens per year, though they have the capacity to produce a second if the first one fails. Both wild and domestic cat mothers may mate with multiple males, and their kittens may be born from different fathers! Wildcats average three kittens per litter after a 68 day gestation, and the babies stay with their mother until they become independent at about six months of age. In domestic cats, babies may be separated from their mother as early as eight to ten weeks because they have us to worship their every beck and call.

For more facts on wildcats, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.