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The African wildcat (''Felis silvestris lybica''), also called Near Eastern wildcat is a wildcat subspecies that lives in Africa and around the periphery of the Arabian Peninsula.〔Nowell, K., Jackson, P. (1996). (''African Wildcat ''Felis silvestris, lybica group'' (Forster, 1770) ) In: Wild Cats: status survey and conservation action plan. IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group, Gland, Switzerland.〕〔 The status Least Concern on the IUCN Red List is attributed to the species, including all subspecies of wildcats. The African wildcat appears to have diverged from the other subspecies about 131,000 years ago. Some individual African wildcats were first domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East, and are the ancestors of the domestic cat.〔.〕 Remains of domesticated cats were found in human burials in Cyprus that are estimated to have been established by Neolithic farmers about 9,500 years ago.〔Vigne, J. D., Guilaine, J., Debue, K., Haye, L., Gérard, P. (2004). ''Early taming of the cat in Cyprus''. Science 304 (5668): 259–259.〕 Crossings between domestic cats and African wildcats are still common today. ==Characteristics== The fur colour of the African wildcat is light sandy grey, and sometimes with a pale yellow or reddish hue. The ears are reddish to grey, with long light yellow hairs around the pinna. Stripes around the face are dark ochre to black: two are running horizontally on the cheek, and four to six across the throat. A dark stripe is running along the back, the flanks are lighter, and the belly is whitish. Pale vertical stripes on the sides often dissolve into spots. Two dark rings are on the forelegs, and hind legs are striped. The feet are dark brown to black.〔Hufnagl, E., Craig-Bennett, A., and Van Weerd, E. (1972). ''African Wild Cat''. In: Libyan Mammals. Oleander Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Page 42.〕 Pocock described the African wildcat as differing from the European wildcat by inconspicuous stripes on the nape and shoulders, a less sharply defined stripe on the spinal area and by the slender tail, which is cylindrical, less bushy and more tapering. Ears are normally tipped with a small tuft. Skins of male wildcats from Northern Africa measured in head-to-body length with a long tail. Skins of female wildcats measured with a long tail.〔Pocock, R. I. (1944). ''The Races of the North African Wild Cat (Felis lybica)''. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 114 (1–2): 65–73.〕 Male wildcats from Yemen measured in head-to-body length with a long tail; females were slightly smaller measuring in head-to-body length with a long tail. Both females and males ranged in weight from .〔Al-Safadi, M. M., and Nader, I. A. (1990). ''First record of the wild cat, ''Felis silvestris'' Schreber, 1777 from the Yemen Arab Republic (Carnivora: Felidae)''. Mammalia 54 (4): 621–626.〕 The fur is shorter than of the European wildcat, and it is considerably smaller. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「African wildcat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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