Genomic evidence for the Chinese mountain cat as a wildcat conspecific

This genomic study examined the enigmatic Chinese mountain cat of the Tibetan Plateau and clarified its relationship to other wildcats and to domestic cats in China. Using genome-wide data, the authors concluded that the Chinese mountain cat is a wildcat lineage best treated as Felis silvestris bieti, and importantly that it has not contributed to the ancestry of Chinese domestic cats, which instead derive from the Near Eastern wildcat like all other house cats. The study did detect some introgression from the mountain cat into local free-ranging cats. The work resolved long-standing uncertainty about whether domestic cats in East Asia had a separate origin, reinforcing the single Near Eastern domestication, and refined the taxonomic status of one of the least-known felids.