The
foxcat
is a wild cat that has long been known to Corsican shepherds and has intrigued scientists for years.
Thursday, March 16, the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) announced that this feline was indeed an animal specific to the Mediterranean island.
To discover
March: what vegetables and fruits are in season?
The fox cat, a new breed of cat?
The latest genetic analyzes have
“demonstrated a specific genetic line of wild cats in Corsica”.
The analysis
"clearly makes it possible to separate samples from Corsican wild cats from samples from continental
forest cats
,
domestic cats
(from Corsica and the mainland) and cats from Sardinia"
, indicates the OFB in a press release.
This feline is known locally under the Corsican name of "ghjattu volpe" which means "cat-fox".
It is in particular the length of its body and its tail that earned it this name.
With its fawn-grey hair, large ears and short whiskers, the fox-cat is very close to the classic domestic cat.
Read alsoDiscover 5 atypical cat breeds
How was the cat-fox discovered?
Corsican shepherds
“told that these forest cats attacked the udders of their sheep and goats.
It is from these stories, transmitted from generation to generation, that we began our research”,
explained in 2019 to AFP Carlu-Antone Cecchini, forest cat project manager at the National Office of Hunting and Wildlife (ONCFS), now integrated into the OFB.
For scientists, the story began more recently, after the accidental capture of a wild-type cat from a chicken coop in Olcani, Cap Corse, in 2008. Now, “the identification of a
specific genetic entity”
among the felids that are threatened
"is remarkable and essential for the implementation of appropriate conservation measures"
, concludes the OFB.