By Obiabin Onukwugha
The wildcat is a small animal native to continental Europe, Scotland, Turkey and the Caucasus and some parts of Africa. It inhabits a broad variety of landscapes ranging from deserts to savannas, shrublands and grasslands.
Its fur is brownish to grey with stripes on the forehead and on the sides and has a bushy tail with a black tip. Wild cat reaches a head-to-body length of up to 65 cm (26 in) and weighs up to 7.5 kg (17 lb).
Wildcats are much more aggressive by nature, than domestic cats.
Wildcat is predominantly nocturnal, but also active in the daytime when undisturbed by human activities.
It mostly preys on small mammals such as lagomorphs, rodents and ground-dwelling birds.
In most European countries, European wildcats have become rare. Although legally protected, they are still shot by some people mistaking them for feral cats.
During reproduction, when a female wild cat goes into estrous, local males congregate near the female and compete for access to her. Males screech, yowl, display, and fight. Females will mate with multiple males and multiple paternity in single litters is possible.
After a gestation period of around two and a half months, the female wildcat produce a litter of between one and eight kittens. Mothers care for their kittens until they reach independence at around six months old.
Yorubas call it “ologbo egan”, Igbos call it, “nwamba”. Wildcats live up to seven years in the wild and up to 15 in captivity.
Wild cats play an especially integral role because they help increase linkages between species and manage prey populations.
Most wild cats are preyed upon as young cats by larger predators, such as foxes, wolves, other cats, and large birds of prey, such as owls and hawks.
The wildcat was a totem of a number of other early Celtic tribes, including the Irish ‘cat-heads’. These were possibly warriors who wore cat skin over their battle helmets.
Although wildcats are mostly silent, their haunting mating calls were no doubt responsible for at least a few ghost stories.
