African Wildcat
wildlife of Namibia
Introduction - Six thousand years ago Egyptians domesticated the African Wild Cat to control mice and rats raiding granaries. From these tamed animals, the domestic cat was bred, therefore the similarity between the two. One of the differences are the much longer legs. This allows the cat to sit almost vertically upright, something that the domestic cat can not do. Wild cats readily interbreed with domestic cats and there are few countries that have pure wild cats left. Namibia is lucky in that it does not have many domesticated cats and that helps boost the country's pure-blooded wild cat numbers. With interbreeding, the cats loose the ear colouration and the long legs.
Diet - The diet mainly consists of rodents, but they also eat birds, hares, reptiles, frogs and insects.
Colouring - The colouring is very similar to the domestic cat. The back of the ears, however, are orange-pink in colour.
Breeding - The female has a gestation period of 2 months and will then give birth to a litter of between 2 and 5 (mostly 3) kittens.
Size - The African Wild Cat can reach a shoulder height of 35 cm and can weight between 2.5 and 6 kg
