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Jen J,
Thank you for the book recommendations. I will have to look in to them. Also you are doing way better then me on the cats thing. The only exotic cats I have seen are at zoos. I don't get to travel like most people on here.
I've only seen a couple jungle cats, and one hybrid in real life...but I haven't seen enough to be sure about this cat. I'll have to look into your field guide, too. Thanks for the tip!
Yes, Jen, that is what I mean by black tear stripes, similar to a cheetah but not as extensive. I have never seen a jungle cat though in person, have you? I'm getting my info from A Field Guide to Indian Mammals - Vivek Menon.
Dan, jungle cats don't have black tear stripes, but they do have a dark spot in front of the eyes near the nose, is that what you mean? I just wanted to clarify because in my mind, when someone says tear stripes I think of tear stains like what a cheetah or maybe a serval has. With jungle cats, their muzzle is generally bright white and they have white lines above and below the eyes. The exceptions would be that there are black jungle cats in southeastern Pakistan and some melanistic cats have been reported from India.
Jessica, thanks for the photos you put up of the domestic cats. It's definitely hard to tell with this photo, but I definitely see your point in thinking it's probably a domestic. If you are really interested in cats, I have a couple really amazing books you might like. One is called "Wild Cats of the World" and it's by Mel & Fiona Sunquist (they worked with cats for a long time- Mel was a professor at the University of Florida and he just retired a couple years ago now) and a newer book, "The Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids" by David Macdonald and Andrew Loveridge. David Macdonald is the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Unit at Oxford, and it's definitely a more scientific book (lots of genetic studies), but they're both great.
okay here are some pictures that either are tabbies that kind of look like this cat and some of the bengal tabby cats that look kinda exotic.
tabby
http://furrycritters.techiebear.com/Kitt...
leopard bengal tabby
http://www.foxmeadowfriesians.com/leopar...
just a tabby
http://www.secondchanceanimalrescue.org/...
bengal tabby
http://www.felinest.com/images/brown-spo...
This a Main coon cat and it looks like a wild cat.
http://freerussiandating.info/yanikacoon...
Just backing up my theory.
India has 15 species of cat. This does resemble a jungle cat a bit but they have a black tear stripe running down each cheek, which I don't see here. I think this is just a feral domestic cat.
Jen J, Thank you for sharing the links. I looked and I didn't know that there was 32 small cats. Was very interesting. It would be really great if we could identify the cat. Your right if we work together we will have a better chance of getting it right.
Sorry Alice, your comment didn't show up until after I had sent mine in. You're definitely right about those ear tufts. Jungle cats have such small ear tufts, the first time I saw the photo I saw the dark marking on the right ear at the top and thought it was a tuft. Whoops! I'm not sure how accurate this particular source is, but it's interesting information: http://www.messybeast.com/small-hybrids/...
Of course if it's a hybrid (which does happen) then it's somewhere in the middle ;)
@ JessicaMueller, you are definitely right that it looks like a domestic cat. But there are actually 32 small cat species (way more than large cat species), and some of those species are actually smaller than domestic cats. If you're interested, this has some really basic information: http://www.wildcatsanctuary.org/educatio.... I'm not saying you're wrong about this being a domestic cat, but it's possible it is a wild cat species. Maybe if more people look into it and we learn a little bit more about exactly what type of area this spot was in, we can all figure it out together.
It could be a hybrid but i have no doubt in my mind that this is not a pure jungle cat. It is missing a very specific characteristic, the long black tufts on the ears, among other things and jungle cats usually resemble a lynx. I'm with Jessica on this one. Feral cats can grow to be bigger than domestic ones, keep in mind.
I know we are in different countries and I don't know what kind of cats you have there, but it looks just like my cat at home. Down to the strips on the legs. I'm know there are some big jungle cats, but they are as big as dogs. When I looked at the pictures of them I noticed that some pictures the head was not proportion with the body, some had really big ears and others just didn't look like a house cat in the face like your picture does. Well I hope that I have helped some. Just a guess. Hope you find out what it is.
Was it definitely a wild cat? It could also be a regular Felis catus (domestic cat) or a hybrid. It looks an awful lot like a jungle cat, but I could be wrong. Was it larger than an average house cat?
Spotted on Aug 18, 2012
Submitted on Aug 18, 2012
