This picture by Reuters/Bernadett Szabo reminds us very starkly that although the small wild cats look cute and cuddly they are genuinely fierce and, yes, wild in character when handled by humans. They are, of course, unsocialised. But it is more than that. They have a fierceness which is impressive; like miniature tigers. Some …
The leopard cat is a small wild cat species found in Asia. This picture is interesting for the fact that the species is the wild half of the most popular wild cat hybrid, the Bengal cat. Here we see how tough life can be for small wild cats in Asia. I had thought that …
The leopard cat is not the common leopard. It is a much smaller wild cat species, about the same size as a domestic cat. Its scientific name is Prionailurus bengalensis. The domestic Bengal cat, a wildcat hybrid, was created from a cross between the leopard cat and a domestic cat. The name of this …
Some wild cats eat fish. For some species, fish are part of their diet because they like to live near water. For example, a small but powerful wild cat which eats fish is the fishing cat. This cat is an excellent swimmer (in fact all wild cats are at least capable swimmers). It has …
Research indicates that about 5,500 years ago the leopard cat was domesticated in China. Approximately 4,500 years before that, in the Middle East, the North African wildcat was domesticated. The domestication of the North African wildcat led to the domestic cat that we know and love today whereas the domestication of the leopard cat …
As is commonplace throughout the world we have another example of business destroying the habitat of wild cat species which in this case concerns the leopard cat (aka Asian leopard cat) in Miaoli, a county in the middle of Taiwan. Also commonplace is the destruction of habitat by big business under dubious planning applications …
The California Spangled is extinct but, that said, cat breeds can’t become extinct. Sarah Hartwell says, “The breed was considered extinct in the 1990s”. You won’t get a better authority. This is about 20 years ago. If there were some individual cats with some breeders perhaps they have died. There may be some individual …
There is one wild cat species in Japan – specifically on a Japanese island: Iriomote-jima. It is remarkably close to Taiwan and quite far from Japan as it happens. The cat is named after the island: Iriomote cat (scientific name: Prionailurus bengalensis ssp. iriomotensis). It is a subspecies of the Asian leopard cat (leopard …
