For hundreds of years, shepherds on the French island of Corsica talked about a mysterious beast with reddish fur, which was called the "fox cat" or "fox cat". According to their stories, this beast attacked the udders of sheep and goats.
This animal was considered mythical and, according to scientists, the peasants either confused the "cat-fox" with an ordinary cat or a fox, or even just made up fictions.
And only in 2008, the first such animal was caught in a hen house and got to the biologists. And over the following years, several more large felines were found and delivered to scientists in the local forests.
Scientists have studied the DNA of this beast, and it is likely that a new subspecies of wild forest cat will be announced in the coming years.
The Corsican "fox cat" is slightly larger than the average domestic cat and its fur is really reddish and very thick. She also had a thick tail with a blunt end and black rings - one of the signs of wild forest cats. Domestic cats have thinner tails and often have a pointed tip.
According to Karlu-Anthony Checchini, these cats live only in a small remote area, where they are protected from people by water on one side and forest on the other. Their main enemy is the golden eagle.
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Since 2008, 16 of these cats have been caught in the forests of Corsica, 12 of which fell into the hands of scientists, were humanely examined by them, and then released back into the wild.
One of the last cats was a male with a slightly damaged eye. One eye is normal and the other is dark. It is this cat that is presented in all the photos in this article.
The released cats were equipped with GPS collars to track their movements.
According to the researchers, these wild cats may have arrived in Corsica thousands of years ago. At the same time, it is surprising that such a large animal living in Europe came to scientists only in the 21st century. Stories like this always inspire cryptozoologists, who also hunt for creatures called mythical.
