Cretan wildcat
| Wild Cat | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
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| Subspecies: | F. s. cretensis
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| Trinomial name | |
| Felis silvestris cretensis Haltenorth, 1953
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| Synonyms | |
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Felis silvestris agrius | |
The Cretan wildcat is a Wild cat that inhabits the Greek island of Crete. It was long thought to have gone extinct, but in 1996 a specimen was captured by an expedition from the University of Perugia.
The Cretan wildcat, though it is consider as a subspiece of the European Wild Cat it is more closely related to the African Wild Cat. Since cats are bad swimmers, scientists now examine two hypotheses[1]:
- The animal existed on Crete prior to the separation of Crete from the neighboring mainland.
- The animal was brought to Crete for domestication by the first settlers, but later it ran wild again.