🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

Faced with rampant hybridization between Scottish wildcats and domestic cats, this study developed a pelage-based scoring system to distinguish genuine wildcats from hybrids and feral domestic cats. T…

Kitchener AC, Yamaguchi N, Ward JM, Macdonald DW · Animal Conservation · 2005

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 author…

Yu H, Xing YT, Meng H, et al. · Science Advances · 2021

A key outcome of recent wildcat taxonomy is the treatment of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) and the African or Near Eastern wildcat (Felis lybica) as separate species rather than subspecies o…

For several wildcat populations, the greatest threat is not habitat loss or persecution but genetic assimilation through hybridization with domestic cats. This overview examines how introgression enda…

Genomic work on the Chinese mountain cat addressed whether it contributed to East Asian domestic cats and revealed instead a one-directional pattern. This overview explains that domestic cats in China…

Because domestic cats descend from wildcats and remain interfertile with them, introgression is a pervasive problem in wildcat taxonomy and conservation. This overview explains how gene flow from fera…

Distinguishing a true wildcat from a tabby domestic cat or hybrid is a practical taxonomic challenge with conservation stakes. This overview describes the morphological characters used, including a bu…

How many species the wildcat complex contains has shifted with new evidence and species concepts. This overview traces the debate from treating all wildcats as one species, Felis silvestris, with many…

Genetic and archaeological evidence converge on the African or Near Eastern wildcat, Felis lybica, as the sole wild ancestor of all domestic cats. This overview explains how the foundational phylogeog…

The wildcat complex is among the most taxonomically debated felid groups because of its broad range, clinal variation, and entanglement with the domestic cat. This overview surveys the complex's struc…

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 over…

This study applied genome-wide SNP markers to quantify how thoroughly Scottish wildcats have hybridized with domestic cats, a central question for the survival of the population. The authors developed…

Senn HV, Ghazali M, Kaden J, et al. · Evolutionary Applications · 2019

This landmark study sampled wildcats across Europe, Africa, and Asia and used mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites to define the structure of the Felis silvestris complex and pinpoint the ancestry of…

Driscoll CA, Menotti-Raymond M, Roca AL, et al. · Science · 2007

This widely read popular-science synthesis distilled the molecular findings on wildcat systematics and cat domestication for a general audience. Written by researchers central to the foundational wild…

Driscoll CA, Clutton-Brock J, Kitchener AC, O'Brien SJ · Scientific American · 2009