Afro-Asiatic Wildcat (Felis lybica) Classification

The domestic cat (Felis catus) descends from the African wildcat subspecies Felis lybica lybica. Its global distribution alongside humans testifies to its successful adaptation to anthropogenic environments.

Uncertainty remains regarding whether domestic cats originated in the Levant, Egypt or elsewhere in its natural range, and on the timing and circumstances of their dispersal into Europe.

By analysing 87 ancient and modern cat genomes, we demonstrate that domestic cats did not spread to Europe with Neolithic farmers, as previously thought. Conversely, our results suggest that they were introduced to Europe over the last 2,000 years, most likely from North Africa. We also demonstrate that a separate earlier (1st millennium BCE) introduction of wildcats from Northwest Africa originated the present-day wild population in Sardinia.

Martino, Marco & Cupere, Bea & Rovelli, Valentina & Serventi, Patrizia & Baldoni, Marica & Corcia, Tullia & Geiger, Sheila & Alhaique, Francesca & Alves, Paulo & Buitenhuis, Hijlke & Ceccaroni, Emanuela & Cerilli, Eugenio & Grossi-Mazzorin, Jacopo & Detry, Cleia & Dowd, Marion & Fiore, Ivana & Gourichon, Lionel & Grau-Sologestoa, Idoia & Kuchelmann, Hans & Ottoni, Claudio. (2025). The dispersal of domestic cats from Northern Africa and their introduction to Europe over the last two millennia. 10.1101/2025.03.28.645893.

African wildcats (Felis lybica) cause considerable poultry losses to poultry farmers in African rural areas through predation, and contribute to human food insecurity, loss of income and livelihood, and social well-being. Unable to manage poultry farmer-wildcat conflicts, the affected poultry farmers reduce their support to wildlife conservation and resort to retaliatory killings of African wildcats and other wildlife, mainly by secretly using poisons and traps. Such a human-carnivore conflict becomes protracted due to poor anti-predator responses implemented by the poultry farmers and wildlife management authorities.

In this study, we used 101 semi-structured questionnaires to evaluate poultry predation by African wildcats occurring adjacent (approximately between 7 and 68 km) to Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park in Chiawa Game Management Area by focusing on local poultry farmer knowledge, attitudes and practices. The study’s Generalized Linear Model showed that season (i.e., hot-wet season), time (i.e., night) and countermeasures (i.e., absence of wire fences) were the primary predictors of poultry predation by African wildcats, while low tree cover and education attained by the poultry farmers were the secondary factors. The rate of chicken loss per year/poultry farmer was 19.1 ± 1.3 SE.

We suggest strengthening farmer-based countermeasures, such as small-mesh fencing to protect poultry from African wildcats, and sensitisation programmes by wildlife managers for poultry farmer transformation towards supporting conservation alongside conservation planning in these human-dominated-wildlife landscapes for improved farmer-African wildcat co-existence, particularly in the hot-wet season and night-time when the poultry losses from attacks by African wildcats spike.

Chisaka, Lanos & Phiri, Darius & Imakando, Christopher & Nyirenda, Wilfred & Lwali, Chisala & Phiri, Chafika & Luaba, Kampinda & Musonda, Felix & Nyirenda, Vincent. (2024). Poultry farmers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding poultry predation by African wildcats (Felis lybica) in Chiawa Game Management Area, Zambia. Discover Conservation. 1. 10.1007/s44353-024-00021-z.

In March 2022, first Red List Assessments of the Afro-Asiatic wildcat Felis lybica (Ghoddousi et al. 2022) and European wildcat Felis silvestris (Gerngross et al. 2022) for the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM were completed. There was a need for new assessments of these two species as they were recognized as distinct species in 2017.

Both species have a wide distribution across three continents but are threatened by habitat modification and hybridization with domestic cats. Importantly, the distribution of both species likely overlaps in Anatolia and the Caucasus, calling for future genetic studies focused on these regions.

The reduced scale of the assessments due to taxonomic split allowed for compiling information at a much higher resolution than in the previous efforts. However, further studies of the distribution and threats are required.

Given the available data, both species were classified as Least Concern.

Gerngross, P.; Ghoddousi, A.
Afro-Asiatic and European wildcats: first IUCN Red List assessments
2022 Cat News (76): 9-11

The cat has long been important to human societies as a pest-control agent, object of symbolic value and companion animal, but little is known about its domestication process and early anthropogenic dispersal.

Here we show, using ancient DNA analysis of geographically and temporally widespread archaeological cat remains, that both the Near Eastern and Egyptian populations of Felis silvestris lybica contributed to the gene pool of the domestic cat at different historical times.

While the cat's worldwide conquest began during the Neolithic period in the Near East, its dispersal gained momentum during the Classical period, when the Egyptian cat successfully spread throughout the Old World.

The expansion patterns and ranges suggest dispersal along human maritime and terrestrial routes of trade and connectivity.

A coat-colour variant was found at high frequency only after the Middle Ages, suggesting that directed breeding of cats occurred later than with most other domesticated animals.

Ottoni, C.; Van Neer, W.; de Cupere, B.; Daligalt, J.; Guimaraes, S.; Peters, J.; Spassov, N.; Prendergast, M.E.; Boivin, N.; Morales-Mu¤ez, A.; Balasescu, A.; Becker, C.; Llorente, L.; Manaseryan, N.; Monchot, H.; Onar, V.; Osypinska, M.; Putelat, O.; Morales, E.M.Q.; Studer, J.; Wierer, U.; Decorte, R.; Grange, T.; Geigl, E.-M.
The palaeogenetics of cat dispersal in the ancient world
2017  Ecology and Evolution: 1-7

The African Wildcat is listed as Least Concern because it is the most common and widely distributed wild felid within the assessment region. However, extensive hybridisation and introgression with domestic cats across its global distribution range has been recorded.

Recent studies suggest lower levels of introgression than expected in South Africa (Wiseman et al. 2000; Le Roux et al. 2015). As incidences of hybridisation correlate with human population pressure, high rates of rural and urban expansion (8% and 15% respectively for both Northern Cape and Limpopo provinces), especially around protected area edges, may increasingly threaten this species.

Further research on the levels of hybridisation and declines of genetically pure subpopulations may thus lead to a reassessment of the African Wildcat as a threatened species, under criterion A4e.

Key interventions include the establishment and enforcement of large protected areas to reduce the edge effects of the wild-domestic animal interface (for example the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park), and spaying and neutering domestic cats, especially in rural areas and close to protected areas.

Herbst, M.; Foxcroft, L.; Le Roux, J.; Bloomer, P.; Do Linh San, E.
A conservation assessment of Felis silvestris
2016 African Wildcat - in Red list of South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho

Within China, the Asian wildcat is distributed in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia. Records from northern Tibet as well as Sichuan are questionable (Smith & Xie 2008).

Gao (1987) noted that the population may once have exceeded 10,000 individuals in northwestern China, with a density of 10/100km².

Its recent status in China is unknown, but it is assumed to be rare and, according to the China Species Red List, the population is declining (Wang 1998).

Jutzeler, E.; Xie, Y.; Vogt, K.

Asian wildcat in Cat News (Special Issue 5): 42-43

The world's domestic cats carry patterns of sequence variation in their genome that reflect a history of domestication and breed development.

A genetic assessment of 979 domestic cats and their wild progenitors (Felis silvestris silvestris - European wildcat; F. s. lybica - Near Eastern wildcat; F. s. ornata - Central Asian wildcat; F. s. cafra - sub Saharan African wildcat; and F. s. bieti - Chinese desert cat) indicated that each wild group represents a distinctive subspecies of Felis silvestris.

Further analysis revealed that cats were domesticated in the Near East, likely coincident with agricultural village development in the Fertile Crescent.

Domestic cats derive from at least five founders from across this region, whose descendants were subsequently transported across the world by human assistance.

Driscoll, C.A.; Menotti Raymond, M.; Roca, A.L.; Hupe, K.; Johnson, W.E.; Geffen, E.; Harley, E.; Delibes, M.; Pontier, D.; Kitchener, A.C.; Yamaguchi, N.; O'Brien, S.J.; Macdonald, D.
The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication
2007  Science express: 1-6