- Head Body Length: 45-80 cm (17-31″)
- Tail Length: 25.7-32.6 cm (10-12.8″)
- Weight: 3-8 kg (6-18 lbs)
The European Wildcat Felis silvestris is the size of a large domestic cat. It has a broad head and wide set ears. Their coat is thick and long in winter, grey-brown with a well-defined, individual pattern of black stripes on the head, neck, limbs, and a distinct dorsal line. It has a bushy, blunt-ending tail with several black rings and a black tip. Some individuals have a white spot on the throat. In the winter coat, this wildcat looks rather compact and short-legged, although in reality they have longer legs than most domestic cats. Melanism has never been recorded in Europe.
Distribution
These cats inhabit parts of Europe, adjoining Russia and into central Asia. Formerly widely distributed in Europe, severe declines and local extirpations occurred in Europe between the late 1700s and mid 1900s, resulting in a fragmented distribution. They were considered regionally extinct in Austria but vagrants still occur and the Italian population is spreading northwards into Austria.
A study in the southern regions of the Netherlands (2016) showed that the European Wildcat population there is increasing. The study confirmed at least two dens with multiple kittens and identified at least 14 individuals in a southern province. The first Dutch wildcats were sporadically seen in 2002 and 2006 but since 2012 people have recorded wildcats more often. Research in 2015 identified eight individuals, two years later the number grew to 14. The wildcats most likely originate from Germany and Belgium. It seems that the population is spreading northwards faster than expected.
This Wildcat is primarily associated with forest habitat and is most abundant in broad-leaved or mixed forests. However, it also inhabits grassland and steppe habitats and can be found in the Mediterranean scrubland, riparian forest, marsh boundaries and along sea coasts or in very wet swampy areas. The European wildcat generally avoids areas of intensive cultivation and of high human densities or human activity. In the Pyrenees it is found up to 2,250 m elevation and also occurs in the Swiss Jura mountains.
Ecology
European wildcats are considered solitary, mostly nocturnal and territorial predators. In areas with little human activity, wildcats are often active also during the day, with activity peaks at dawn and dusk. Cats in a study from western Scotland travelled over 10 km per night to forage on open ground and rested by day in thickets or young forestry plantations. For resting sites it prefers sheltered structures near forest edges. Home ranges in Scotland were 1-2 km² for females while home ranges in Hungary were 1.5-8.7 km². In north-eastern France home ranges of males were larger than the ones of females and overlapped with the ranges of 3-5 females. Home range overlap between individuals of the same sex was low.
Not much is known about their social behaviour. They use scent marks (urine spraying in both sexes and uncovered faeces) for communication. Vocal communication occurs throughout the year, but most frequently in the breeding season. Although it is an excellent climber, the wildcat hunts almost exclusively on the ground, stalking its prey followed by a quick attack.
The staple diet of the European wildcat is rodents such as rats, mice and voles. In areas where rabbits occur such as central Spain or parts of Scotland, they can be the major prey item. They occasionally take insectivores, birds, insects, frogs, lizards, hares and poultry or even smaller carnivores such as martens, weasels and polecats. They will also scavenge food. Their diet shows only minor seasonal variations with rodents or rabbits as the major prey item throughout the year.
Reproduction
The mating season is in late winter: January- March. Most births take place in April and May. Females can only breed twice in one year under exceptional circumstances such as when the first litter is lost. The estrus cycle lasts for 1-6 days when males are present and the gestation for 64-71 days, on average 68 days. Age at independence can vary from 5-10 months and sexual maturity is reached by females at 6.5-11 months and for males at 9-10 months. Kittens start to eat solid food when they are one month old, are weaned at the age of 3.5–4.5 months, and learn to hunt progressively between 3-5 months of age. Longevity is 12-16 years of age.
Conservation
One of the main threats to the European wildcat is hybridisation with domestic cats which can lead to the loss of genetic variation or specific adaptations. Such hybrids are found almost throughout its entire range and there may be very few genetically pure European wildcat populations remaining. Hybrids between wildcats and domestic cats can look very similar to the wildcat which makes it difficult to assess the status of these cats.
Disease transmission from domestic cats and competition with feral cats for food are other potential threats. Human-caused mortality can be very high. Many wildcats get killed on roads or as by-catch in control measures for other carnivores. Rodenticides may also threat wildcat populations.
There is still a lack of information regarding its current status and population trends, and there have been no recent large-scale surveys or European regional reviews of the status of the European Wildcat.
They are fully protected over most of their range under national legislation. Hunting is regulated in Azerbaijan, Romania and Slovakia. It has no legal protection outside reserve areas in Bulgaria, Georgia and Romania. No information is available for Albania, Croatia and Slovenia.
The wildcat (including Felis silvestris and Felis lybica) is considered as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The European Wildcat has not yet been separately assessed in the IUCN Red List. It is considered threatened at the national level in many range states.
Updated 2018
Range map courtesy IUCN Red List
Pat Bumstead
Yes, we would love to have a look at your photos. Please email to smallwildcats(at)gmail.com Any chance the cat is pregnant and looking for a comfy place to give birth, which is the only thing I can think of to describe this behavior.
Louise Z
We live on the foot of Jura mountains in Switzerland, surrounded by forests. Since a few days ago, a European wild cat starts to visit our window on the second floor by using our cat ladder (we have two farm cats) and even tries to get into the house. It looks certainly more alert than our house cats but to repeatedly visiting us is still an unusual behaviour for a wildcat. We managed to get a couple of photos and a short video of it today, we are happy to share with you if you want to see them.
Pat Bumstead
Can you please email the photo to us at smallwildcats@gmail.com ? We’re trying to build a collection of Wildcats photos from all the various countries they live in. No one else on the web cares about the wildcat so we’ll speak for them!
George Humphries
Ended up seeing this site as was searching for info on European wildcats as only today I received a message and photo of one in his garden in Brittany in France. He put a camera out and it caught the cat walking through. Great picture.
Pat Bumstead
No one has any idea how many European wild cats live in the wild. They inhabit at least 20 different countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. How would anyone count them?
Daniella
I am doing a research paper and was wondering how many European wildcats are left in the wild?
Pat Bumstead
You can just reference the International Society for Endangered Cats, as our fact sheets are written by a collaboration of people. Our information comes from the IUCN Cat Specialist Group and you can read more here http://www.catsg.org/index.php?id=101
Vivian Hanako
Hello! I am a student writing a thesis on wildcats and domestic cats. I am planning on quoting a part of this article for a section of my writing because I find it very insightful. So, is it possible that I get the name of the writer of this article? I saw a lot of response from Pat Bumstead, are you the writer?
Colincornell@hotmail.co.uk
Just seen wild in central bulgeria
Pat Bumstead
You’re in an area where wildcats could certainly live. They are very secretive cats and people likely don’t know they are around. If you do manage to get a photo, or see the cat again please let us know.
Martyn Saunders
I had a visit from a wildcat on my farmstead here in Lithuania before 5am this morning, haven’t seen one before, thought it was one of the short legged fox coming up the path made from hay until it got close. I know the ferrel cats that roam around here, 2 were born in my barn last winter. This fella had a broad face and strong body as big as the biggest domestic cat I’ve ever known, unfortunately I didn’t get a photo. I have forest nearby and sometimes see pine martens bounce past my house when it’s just getting light I recognise their scat, some scat that has confessed me for the past year may be from the wildcat.
juergen ritter
I saw one on a road in the country side at night about 30 km from Frankfurt Germany in 2005. As big as a small dear I tought I had had an hallucination, it was a gorgeous animal…………
Pat Bumstead
Yes, we would love to see your photo, and use it on our website with your permission. Please email it to to smallwildcats at gmail.com
Gregory Clarke
I have a photo of Felis silvestris if you want. Taken in the mountains of Bulgaria.
Pat Bumstead
Firstly, I have no idea where you could send any bloodwork to determine your cats lineage. Secondly, if you did find someplace to send it, they would have to have markers from true wildcats to match it to. This would require a European contact, as there are no Felis silvestris or Felis lybica occurring in North America.
Your cat’s behaviour sounds just like that of one of my cats and he’s a grey tabby. Felis catus genes are remarkable things, and maybe your girl has a larger than usual amount of an ancestor’s gene pool!
M.A.F.
My question is similar to Jeff’s; we know that there are no native wildcats in North America, and any full-blooded cats coming over seems highly improbable, but do you know if it is possible for hybrids to have been brought across the Atlantic? I was watching a documentary on European Wildcat conservation, and noticed that one of my two cats shares an inordinate number of characteristics with F. Silvestris, despite all domestic cats being said to originate with F. Lybica (to the best of my knowledge that would be the form of cat native to the fertile crescent millenia ago). She’s 6 kilograms without being overweight, has odd combinations of lined and ticked tabby marks, has yellow-in-black eye rings, a very thick/blunt tail with rings and no stripes (she has a dorsal stripe that terminates in her sacral region (I think it’s still called that on a cat), etc. She also has very different behavior to any other cat I’ve ever met: she eviscerates and side-chews all of her toys and is much more playful and rough with them than my other cat and any other cat I’ve met, and she is strictly crepuscular and doesn’t adjust her sleeping patterns to match those of humans and my other cat, she doesn’t like to be held or full-body petted despite loving to have people rub their faces on her head and shoulders (it elicits an immediate loud purr), and she can be very territorial. She’s also near-completely silent, which even the shelter staff remarked on when I adopted her. This could all just be her personality and a coincidental collection of F. Catus characteristics, but do you know of any laboratory or project that I could submit her blood to for DNA testing to rule out ancestral hybridization? I found that UCDavis will perform DNA tests, but they only test for breed lineage and genetic disorders and have no tests for catus/silvestris hybridization DNA. I would very much like to have my vet draw some blood at her next physical/annual vaccination appointment so that I can send it in to the appropriate place for a DNA assay, if possible. Do you know of such a place?
Pat Bumstead
There are no European Wildcats in North America. Their domestic cat descendants however, come in a bewildering variety of colours, patterns and sizes. A few domestic breeds can reach up to 40″ long, so I suspect that’s what you saw.
Jeff
Have European Wildcats been found in North America… I think I just saw one in central Minnesota shortly after dusk… big bushy tail, no strips like a tabby, identicle to picture above… at first I thought it might be a bobcat, but it was too small but bigger than any domestic cat I’ve seen, plus it had the long bushy tail… Could just be a ferrel cat… just curious?