Research overview: the feral origin of island wildcat populations

Wildcats on some Mediterranean islands, such as Sardinia, Corsica, and Crete, were long treated as native subspecies, but genetic studies suggest they descend from cats introduced by humans. This overview reviews evidence that these island wildcats derive from ancient feral populations of the African wildcat lineage rather than from a long-isolated native stock. It discusses how this finding reclassifies them as feral or naturalized populations of the domestic cat ancestor, complicating their conservation status. The piece explains the broader lesson that not all wild-living cats on islands are native taxa, and that genetics can reveal anthropogenic introductions masquerading as endemic subspecies. It exemplifies how molecular data correct historical assumptions about felid distributions and the origins of insular populations.