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The European wildcat (''Felis silvestris silvestris'') is a subspecies of the wildcat that inhabits European forests, as well as forested areas in Turkey and the Caucasus Mountains. It is absent in Scandinavia, and has been extirpated in England and Wales. Numbers in Scotland are critically low. In France, European wildcats are predominantly nocturnal, but are also active in the daytime when undisturbed by human activities.〔Stahl, P. (1986). (European forest wildcat (''Felis silvestris'' Schreber, 1777): resource exploitation and spatial organization. ) PhD thesis, University of Nancy, Nancy.〕〔Genovesi, P. and Boitani, L. (1993). "Spacing patterns and activity rhythms of a wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') in Italy". Pp. 98–101 in: ''Seminar on the biology and conservation of the wildcat (''Felis silvestris'')'', Nancy, France, 23–25 September 1992. Environmental encounters No. 16, Strasbourg. Council of Europe〕 Populations in Scotland, the Mediterranean islands, Turkey, and Caucasus used to be considered separate wildcat subspecies and distinct from wildcats occurring on the European mainland. == Characteristics == The European wildcat is much bigger and stouter than the domestic cat, has longer pelage and a shorter non-tapering bushy tail. It has a striped fur and a dark dorsal band.〔Condé, B., and Schauenberg, P. (1963). Le chat sauvage – dernier félin de France (wildcat – last feline of France ). Éditions Font-Vive 8: 1–8.〕 Males average a weight of up to , and females . Their weight fluctuates seasonally up to . Large males in Spain reach in length, with a long tail, and weigh up to . They also have a less diffuse stripe pattern, proportionally larger teeth, and feed more often on rabbits than the wildcats north of the Douro-Ebro, which are more dependent on small rodents.〔Garcia-Perea, R. (2006). ("''Felis silvestris'' Schreber, 1777" ). Pp. 333–338 in ''Atlas y Libro Rojo de los Mamíferos Terrestres de España'' (Spanish)]. Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente, Gobierno de Espagna.〕 Since European wildcats and domestic cats interbreed, it is difficult to distinguish European wildcats and striped hybrids correctly on the basis of only morphological characters. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「European wildcat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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