Bounded by stunning beaches and punctuated with rugged mountains, inhabitants of a small French island in the Mediterranean have long relied on agriculture and livestock herding.
For just as long, folktales have warned of a creature lurking nearby.
Stories of the ‘Ghjattu Volpe’ have been passed down in Corsica’s island mythology, the French Office for Biodiversity said in a March 16 news release.
Literally translated, the creature’s name means “cat-fox.”
“The cat-fox is part of our shepherd mythology,” researcher and wildlife official Carlu-Antone Cecchini told AFP in 2019.
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“From generation to generation, they told stories of how the forest cats would attack the udders of their ewes and goats,” he told the news outlet.
Local officials began considering the cat-fox a real species in the 19th and 20th centuries, French officials said.
For most others, the animal remained a myth.
That changed in 2008 when the creature was accidentally captured. The mid-sized tannish-orange feline was found “in a local chicken coop,” AFP reported.
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