The African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica) is a wildcat subspecies that occurs across northern Africa and extends around the periphery of the Arabian Peninsula to the Caspian Sea. As it is the most common and widely distributed wild cat, it is listed as Least Concern by IUCN since 2002.
The African wildcat appears to have diverged from the other subspecies about 131,000 years ago. Some individual African wildcats were first domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East, and are the ancestors of the domestic cat. Remains of domesticated cats have been included in human burials as far back as 9,500 years ago in Cyprus.
Note that the spelling lybica (for libica "of Libya") is due to an orthographical error by Georg Forster (1780) but is now the accepted spelling of the species' systematic name.
Read more about African Wildcat: Characteristics, Distribution and Habitat, Ecology and Behaviour, Subspecies Origin, In Philately
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