The African wildcat is sandy brown to yellow-grey in color, with black stripes on the tail. The fur is shorter than that of the European subspecies. It is also considerably smaller: the head-body length is 45 to 75 cm (18 to 30 in), the tail 20 to 38 cm (7.9 to 15 in), and the weight ranges from 3 to 6.5 kg (6.6 to 14 lb).
The African wildcat occurs across northern Africa and extends around the periphery of the Arabian Peninsula to the Caspian Sea. This extremely wide distributional range is accompanied by a very broad habitat tolerance. It is thinly distributed in true deserts such as the Sahara, and occurs especially in association with hill and mountain country, such as the Hogger. It occurs discontinuously from Morocco through Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and into Egypt, and is extensively distributed across the savannas of West Africa from Mauritania on the Atlantic seaboard, eastwards to the Horn of Africa, Sudan and Ethiopia; southwards it is present in all East and southern African countries.
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