25. Reproduction: African wildcat

The breeding season correlates with the wet season when prey is most abundant.

African wildcats generally are not particularly vocal but there are a few occasions when it's useful. Females will call when in season and males will travel long distances to find females. Vocal communication also occurs between the queen and her kittens.

Kittens need to quickly know what is safe or not. Kittens learn what is normal in their environment during the socialisation period. A kitten will find its own territory with sufficient resources once old enough.

There’s a high mortality rate in African wildcat kittens due to predation, insufficient nutrition, disease and/or lack of shelter.

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Video: African wildcat with kittens (this video has not been created by Cats Protection)

African Wild cat kittens

African wildcat kittens

Original image URL - http://katy-on-the-road.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/african-wildcat.html Image author - Katja Soehngen , licence - All rights reserved, licence granted by the author to Cats Protection