Picture of a jungle cat looking like a dog

The appearance of this jungle cat, no doubt photographed at a zoo, caught my eye for the reason that he/she has the appearance of dog or wolf or even a species of fox. In short, to a certain extent, a canine rather than a feline appearance.

The official description of the jungle cat does not include its likeness to a dog 😉, but they do say that they are larger and lankier than domestic cats.

Jungle cat looks like a dog
Jungle cat looks like a dog. Image in public domain.

The coat is plain and unspotted. The tail is shorter than that of the domestic cat. It measures about one third of the animal’s head and body length. The tail has a black tip at the end. This is clearly visible in the image.

The face is described as being long and slim. The muzzle is distinct and white.

The North African wildcat is known as the wild cat species that was domesticated by the Ancient Egyptians. However, it is believed that the Egyptians may have tamed the jungle cat and kept it for rodent catching duties.

Scientists have discovered the mummified remains of two species of wild cat among those of Ancient Egypt: The African wildcat and the larger jungle cat or reed cat.

However, the jungle cat remains were far less common than those of the wildcat. Three jungle cat remains were discovered versus 187 remains of the African wildcat.

Clearly the North African wildcat proved to be more amenable to being tamed and domesticated compared to the jungle cat.

That is what I take away from those statistics. The jungle cat is simply not as suited to domestication as the African wildcat. That and the fact that the African wildcat is ubiquitous in Africa whereas the jungle cat is much scarcer being present only in the north, in Egypt, on the African continent. It is present in an arc from Israel going east to Vietnam via the shores of the Caspian Sea.

The African wildcat has constantly domesticated itself in Africa for thousands of years and does it today by hanging around villages looking for food where it might mate with a true domestic cat to create a hybrid. As for the Scottish wildcat (a European wildcat), it can be difficult to distinguish between a hybrid wildcat and a purebred animal.

The African wildcat is behaving today, in their propensity to befriend people living in villages, as they did when they were first domesticated some 10,000 years ago. The jungle cat has never behaved in this way. It does not have a character which lends itself to domestication.

Below are some more articles on the jungle cat.

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