Nice specimen, though the taxonomy has been revised yet again. This is not a knock against Giant Eland who no doubt copied the zoo signage. I just mention this for the sake of discussion. I will also note that under the revised taxonomy recently published by IUCN Cat Specialist Group, they state "we tentatively identify the following subspecies within F. lybica" (key word tentative): Felis lybica lybica (E,W,N Africa, Arabia, Middle East) Felis lybica cafra (Southern Africa, boundary with lybica unsure but perhaps Tanzania or Mozambique) Felis lybica ornata (SW,Central Asia)
They are going back to the old usage of European wildcats (Felis silvestris) and African/Asian wildcats (Felis lybica) as two distinct species. Recently they were combined to one species Felis silvestris - a move that I would intuitively support based on morphology. Anyway as far as this specimen and using the revised taxonomy, "East African wildcat" could be either F.l. lybica or F.l. cafra depending on which part of East Africa.
