Back to the future: forgotten historical museum specimens mark the presence of the swamp cat, Felis chaus Güldenstaedt, 1776 in Eritrea

The presence of the swamp cat, Felis chaus, is reported for the first time for the fauna of Eritrea on the basis of a specimen housed in Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali in Turin. This species was never reported for Eritrea, and its diffusion along the Nile Valley beside Egypt’s borders is little known. It is likely more extended than usually reported as supported by another specimen housed in Turin, and coming from “Nubia”. So far, a new Palearctic species is added to the list of mammals of the Horn of Africa. These findings stress the need to maintain and study natural history collections that represent the basis of our understanding of life on Earth.