The African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica), also called Near Eastern wildcat, is a wildcat subspecies that occurs across North Africa and around the periphery of the Arabian Peninsula to the Caspian Sea. As the wildcat is a common and widely distributed cat species it is listed as Least Concern by IUCN since 2002.The wildcat subspecies are estimated to have diverged 230,000 years ago. The ancestor of the African wildcat and the domestic cat is estimated to have diverged about 131,000 years ago. Wildcats were domesticated over 9,000 years ago in the Near East where African wildcats currently occur. Remains of a domestic cat were found in a human grave in Cyprus aged at 9,500 years ago.
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