Caucasian black cat
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The Caucasian black cat is a population of feral cat, Caucasian wildcat, or a hybrid between the two.
Taxonomy
[edit]The Caucasian black cat was described in 1837 by Rudolph Friedrich Hohenacker, who proposed the trinomial name Felis cato affinis.[1][2] Konstantin Satunin proposed the new name Felis daemon in 1904, assuming that Hohenacker was not proposing a scientific name as the latter's work was written in Latin.[3]
There are three hypotheses as to what the Caucasian black cat's identity actually is:[4]
- This population is a melanistic form of the Caucasian wildcat
- The Caucasian black cat is a feral population of domestic cats
- These cats are a hybrid between the two, similar to the Kellas cat of Scotland
Range
[edit]The cat was found south of the Caucasus, being spotted in Armenia and Azerbaijan.[5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Heptner, V. G.; Sludskii, A. A. (2023-09-25). Mammals of the Soviet Union, Volume 2 Part 2: Carnivora (Hyaenas and Cats). BRILL. p. 402. ISBN 978-90-04-62735-2.
- ^ Hohenacker, Rudolph Friedrich (1837). Bulletin of Moscow Society of Naturalists (in French). Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou. p. 136.
- ^ Satunin, C. (1904). "The Black Wild Cat of Transcaucasia". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. II: 162–163.
- ^ Marshall, C. P. (2024-01-21). The Cryptozoology of Cats: Feline Folktales, Fables, and Fauna. Untold Publishing. ISBN 978-1-962340-78-6.
- ^ Eberhart, George M. (2002-12-17). Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-57607-764-1.
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