Cat in Tuscany (1 Viewer)

Took these in Tuscany on a track through a vineyard. I used my Panasonic FZ300 at 600 mm. The shots are both at 600 mm and also with a 100% crop.

I was struck by the size of the creature, the length of its legs and by the constant marking of its territory.

It is probably just a large moggy but I would welcome any thoughts.

Thanks

Colin

colincurry said:

Took these in Tuscany on a track through a vineyard. I used my Panasonic FZ300 at 600 mm. The shots are both at 600 mm and also with a 100% crop.

I was struck by the size of the creature, the length of its legs and by the constant marking of its territory.

It is probably just a large moggy but I would welcome any thoughts.

Thanks

Colin

Click to expand...

Spotty legs and a nasty ratty tail prophesy bad things. Looking carefully you can also see the back stripe come down over the rump and onto the tail (it should stop and the tail then have fully separate rings that are even dorso-ventrally). The tail rings are all wrong, too wide dorsally and, it seems to me from a difficult angle, narrowing ventrally to create almost triangles. Domestic tabby all the way I'm afraid.

Cheers

John

Thanks, John.

Can't say I am surprised!

Colin

colincurry said:

Thanks, John.

Can't say I am surprised!

Colin

Click to expand...

Very sensible of you. It is likely that domestic introgression into Wildcat is chronic across Europe. In Spain some tour operators are advertising trips to areas where the cats are "all pure Wildcat", but photos have come back showing a rather different story in some cases, though there are also photos of decent looking cats up there. It is essential to know and use the full suite of characters on any cat seen, and definitely NOT take any guide's word for it, as I am aware that some guides have continued to state "all cats pure" even after being shown evidence to the contrary.

The other place I have seen a few photos of "Wildcats" from is Belgium and TBH all of those showed signs of hybridisation. I suspect you need to be somewhere very wild indeed to see a pure Wildcat in Europe. Anywhere with a lot of ferals is going to have a lot of hybrids.

John