Mansur Al Fahad sent
me two excellent photographs of the rarely photographed Arabian Wildcat taken
in Um Oshar in the north of the Country in mid-January 2015. Mansur has kindly
allowed me to use the photos on my website for which I am very grateful. The
Arabian wildcat Felis silvestris gordoni , also known as Gordon’s Wildcat, is
found in the mountains, gravel plains and the sand deserts in the north of the
Kingdom. Although they do not require drinking water, they just need a regular
supply of prey species such as gerbils, jirds and jerboas through which they
obtain the required moisture. They also hunt birds and will occasionally eat
large insects. Wildcats are ash-grey to buff in colour with fine darker grey
speckling on back and flanks and a whitish underside. The back of their ears is
orange and the slightly bushy tail has three black rings ending in a black tip,
while the underside of all four feet is also black. It is a shy animal that
hunts at night and spends the day in hiding. Adapted to life in the wild, the
wildcat is very strong and agile and can defend itself fiercely if it is
cornered with local tribesmen saying, "They would rather tackle a wild leopard
than an Arabian wildcat". They breed all year around, the female giving birth to a litter of
two to three kittens in a rock crevice, hollow tree or an empty fox burrow.
Similar in size to the domestic cat, the genetically pure
Arabian wildcat now occurs only in the United Arab Emirates, northern Oman and
northern Saudi Arabia. It makes its home in semi-desert and rocky terrain,
avoiding the desert wastelands filled with large dunes that lack scrub and rock.
It establishes a territory that may span several square kilometres where the cat
maintains several den sites. It usually builds a den with a single entrance on
the slope of a dune. The Wildcat faces long-term threats to its existence with
its range adversely affected by encroachment from human expansion including hunting
and interbreeding with domestic cats which will probably result in the species becoming extinct at some
stage.
