Mythical Corsican "cat-Fox" was a real animal

Hundreds of years, shepherds in the French island of Corsica was told about the mysterious beast with reddish hair, who was called the "Fox cat" or "cat-Fox." According to them, the beast attacked the udders of sheep and goats.

This animal was considered mythical and according to scientists, the peasants or confused "cat-Fox" with the usual cat or a Fox or did, and just wrote fiction .

Only in 2008, the first such animal was caught in the hen house and got to the biologists. And in subsequent years in native forests was found and delivered to scientists even a few big cats.

Scientists have studied the DNA of this animal and probably in the coming years will be announced the existence of a new subspecies of the wild forest cat.

Corsican "cat-Fox" in size slightly larger than a normal domestic cat and its fur is really reddish and very thick. Also she had a thick tail with a blunt end and dark rings - one of the signs of wild forest cats. Domestic cats tails are thinner and the tip is often pointed.

According to Karl-Anthony Cecchini, these cats live only in a small remote area where people defend them on the one hand water and on the other the forest. Their main enemy is the eagle.

"From generation to generation, local herders told stories about how red forest cats attacked the sheep and goats hopefuls in the udder with milk. However, the first "cat-Fox" caught in the chicken coop, where he tried to catch the chicken."

"After examining his DNA, we found out that these cats are not close to European wild cats (Felis Silvestris Silvestris), however, have similarities with on the steppe wild cat (Felis Silvestris Lybica). However, its exact species it will be necessary to examine more carefully," added Cecchini.

Since 2008, in the forests of Corsica was caught 16 cats, 12 of which were in the hands of scientists, they were humanely examined, and then released back into the wild. The cat in these photos are alive, just under the influence of soporific drugs.

One of the last cats was a male with a slightly damaged eye. One eye had normal and the other dark colors. On released cats wearing GPS collars to track their movements.

According to the researchers, these wild cats probably arrived on Corsica thousands of years ago. However, it's surprising that such a large animal living in Europe, came to scientists only in the twenty-first century. These stories always inspire of cryptozoology, which is also the hunt for creatures called mythical.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»