European wildcat

The European wildcat, Felis silvestris, is a wild species of Felis associated with European and neighboring forest populations. In the Cat Specialist Group's classification it is distinct from the Afro-Asiatic wildcat and the domestic cat. The common word wildcat in older literature can refer to a broader collection of regional lineages, so the scientific name must be read in context.^[ref]

Hybridization with domestic cats complicates identification. Nuclear genetic markers and DNA inherited through mitochondria need not tell exactly the same ancestry story. The 2007 wildcat comparison explicitly marked individuals whose nuclear clustering and mitochondrial lineage differed. That makes a single coat pattern or one inherited marker an incomplete account of ancestry.^[ref]

For an illustrative comparison, two striped cats could have similar appearance while differing in their inherited marker combinations. Appearance remains useful for observing animals, but testing population ancestry requires a stated set of markers, reference samples and classification criteria. Geographic location alone is also insufficient to turn every free-living domestic cat into a European wildcat.