Cretan Wildcat

Cretan Wildcat[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	Felis
Species:	F. silvestris
Subspecies:	F. s. cretensis
Trinomial name
Felis silvestris cretensis Haltenorth, 1953

The Cretan Wildcat (Felis silvestris cretensis; Greek φουρόκατος) is a Wildcat subspecies that inhabits the Greek island of Crete. Long feared extinct, an expedition by the University of Perugia managed to capture an individual in 1996.^[2]

Origin of the Cretan Wildcat

Two hypotheses of how wildcats arrived on the island have been suggested:^[2]

• It was already present before the mainland and Crete separated.
• Early Cretan settlers brought cats for domestication. Some of these escaped and became wild again.

References

1. ^ Wozencraft, W. Christopher (16 November 2005). "Order Carnivora (pp. 532-628)". In Wilson, Don E., and Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). pp. 536-537. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3. 
2. ^ ^{a b} An article about the Cretan wildcat by "STIGMES, the magazine of Crete"