The Newest, Cutest Baby Animals from the World's Zoos & Aquariums
You might be asking yourself, "Why is ZooBorns posting a story on domestic cats?" Look closely though… These are European Wildcats. Snapped at Germany's Opel Zoo just yesterday by Joachim S Muller, the kittens are fine examples of this species native to Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. Studies suggest that all domestic cats are descended from the Wildcat, of which the European Wildcat is a subspecies.
This is one of the cutest animals in the world. Great photos
To be more technically accurate, the housecat is genetically identical with the Libyan subspecies of wildcat. If biology used the concept of infra-species (sub-sub species), then house cats would be a Felis sylvestris infra-species. Or Felis sylvestris lybica domesticus.
They are so beaitiful!
Is it inappropriate for a 40 year old man to wanna go ‘squeeeee’! =)
These little creatures are killing me ^^
That mama is BAD ASS.
I want one T.T
The are sooo cute! They look like tabbys! I would not want to get on the wrong side of that Mom!!
Araya
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Look at that look on the Mom’s face! She is all “Don’t you lay a PAW on my kittens!”
LOL YKWIM
why do wild cats cry like babies ?They give me sleepless nights absolutely crazy.
You’re correct that almost all domestic cats descend from the African wildcat. But they were bred with various other wildcat species over the centuries. Such as the Chartreux, which is the only breed without F.s.libyca ancestry. Their ancestors were Syrian mountain cats (hence the grey-blue fur) which are long extinct in the wild. It is believed that they were domesticated by crusaders and brought back to France in the Middle Ages.
There has also been a lot of natural interbreeding between domestic farm cats and European / Scottish wildcats (Felis silvestris silvestris & F.s.grampia). This explains the many different fur colors of modern domestic cats as well as long-haired breeds. Some modern day breeds are almost 100% European wildcat, such as the Norwegian forest cat.
On top of that, there are newer breeds that were created by crossing domestic cats, which are already genetic mutts, with more exotic wildcat species. The Bengal cat, for example, has Asian leopard cat ancestry, and the Savannah is a Serval hybrid. Sometimes their exotic genes are added by accident to the genetic melting pot that is the common house cat, so there is no telling how many different ancestral species a stray cat or a rescue cat might have 🙂
I think wild cats are so cute! Some of my favourite animals 🙂 I saw this video and thought it was really good… http://youtu.be/iPLr6_KNfl4 Hope you like it too 🙂
You go girl
Yah .you cool girl
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