Felis chaus chaus is the nominate subspecies of the jungle cat.
The Baltic-German naturalist Johann Anton Güldenstädt was the first scientist who observed a jungle cat in the southern frontier of the Russian empire during his travels in 1768–1775 undertaken on behalf of Catherine II of Russia. He described the cat in 1776 under the name "chaus".
This subspecies occurs in the Caucasus, Turkestan, Iran, Baluchistan and Yarkand, Chinese Turkestan, Palestine, southern Syria, Iraq, Egypt; northern Afghanistan and south of the Amu Darya River; along the right tributaries of the Amu Darya River, in the lower courses of the Vakhsh River ranging eastwards to the Gissar Valley and slightly beyond Dushanbe.
Jungle cats have also been recorded in central and southern Turkey.
