= Afro-Asiatic wildcat
{c}
The <Afro-Asiatic wildcat>, Felis lybica, is a wild <species> of <Felis> distributed across much of Africa and parts of Asia. The Cat Specialist Group distinguishes it from the <European wildcat>, Felis silvestris, and the domestic <cat>, Felis catus. Some older work treated these regional wildcats as subspecies of a more broadly defined Felis silvestris.<Afro-Asiatic wildcat species account by the IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group>[Description and distribution; provisional species classification]{ref}
Its relationship to <domestication> has been investigated genetically. The 2007 comparison of domestic and wild <cats> found close clustering of domestic samples with sampled Near Eastern wildcats, rather than with every wildcat population equally. In that paper, the relevant lineage was named within the older subspecies scheme.<The Near Eastern origin of cat domestication by Carlos A. Driscoll and others>[Abstract; Figures1–2: regional samples and genetic clustering]{ref}
This supports a particular ancestry relationship in the sample; it does not make a present-day <Afro-Asiatic wildcat> simply a lost pet. A <feral cat> is a domestic-lineage animal living independently of direct care. Current behavior and genetic ancestry should therefore be recorded separately when studying encounters or <hybridization> between the populations.
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