4. Solitary: African wildcat

African wildcats are solitary

African wildcats live in the savannah in the Middle East and Africa.

Why are African wildcats solitary animals?

African wildcats mainly hunt small rodents by stalking and pouncing. As they don’t hunt larger prey, they don’t need other African wildcats to help them hunt co-operatively.

Their environment has relatively sparse concentration of rodent prey, so individuals are well-dispersed and solitary to avoid competition for the small amounts of available food.

They maintain a territory to ensure other cats are kept away from this important resource.