Scottish Wildcat

[Barn Owl]

Almost certain i saw a wildcat today at a local haunt of mine, if not a purebred then def' a strong hybrid.
It was also seen by another person shortly after me, who i spoke too later in the day and who is of the same opinion.
This was from the car in the forests of S. Scotland.
I won't divulge the location on a public forum.



If any of our highland members have experience of them, please comment.

 

[Goatboy]

Excellent, only ever seen the odd glimpse while working up north. Though we were sure or cat as a kid was the result of a feral mother breading with a wild cat (we got him at Boat of Garten). He had a wee head, massive body (over a stone) and big busy tail with wild markings. Was also barely a pet, used to attack Rottweiler's and I still have white scars from him 30 odd years on.

 

[Toddy]

Excellent and good to hear it too

There's a reseach/recording thing going on just now Tam, trying to suss out and support and breed back in to purity for the wildcats and no' near so many gamekeepers cheerfully shooting them too.

Beautiful beasts, they really are, but kind of with that built in "Don't touch me!" gene

cheers,
M

 

[Barn Owl]

I have seen captive wildcat in the past and all manner of tabby toms but this fella had the thick ringed tail with black end, body stripes and good thick whiskers.
I'm pretty confident in my i.d.

 

[treadlightly]

Lucky you. Must have been a special moment.

 

[Gill]

It was an auld Tabby neebs your eyes are not what they used to be

 

[Big Stu 12]

Take a peek at this www

http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk/index.html

 

[Goatboy]

I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat

[video=youtube;38aDWDUjlOY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38aDWDUjlOY[/video]

 

[chimpy leon]

"Less than 100 individuals remaining."

Its extremely sad to think that soon they could be extinct.

 

[Uilleachan]

"Less than 100 individuals remaining."

Its extremely sad to think that soon they could be extinct.

There is no doubt that the wildcat is in trouble, but a 100?

Where I live thats seen as a political figure, kind of like the last wolf being shot in 1746, that had everything to do with a declaration of victory agin the young pretender and little to do with the demise of the wolf.

The last one hundred wildcats figure is bound up with the politics of national parks and is unlikely to reflect the actual situation on the ground, it's more telling of the tactics used by the national parks management as a fund raising strategy. I'm not saying that some of these people aren't doing good work but as a tactic it demeans our non cairngorm west highland wildcats and lessens their currency, ring-fencing the available funding for themselves.

I'm 75 miles from the north western edge of the cairngorm national park and whilst I haven't seen a wildcat (positively ID'd that is) in 25 years they're still very much here, people are still seeing them, as recently as last winter there was one seen scavenging carrion roadside just 3 miles up the hill from my house.

If they're still here, it stands to reason they're still present throughout the rough bounds; the highland highlands of knoydart, west glengarry, kingy, glendessary etc and throughout the empty quarter that is upland kintail, east and west benula, affric, monar, farr, mallardoch, orran etc. To say nothing of the rest of the country.

Great if you've seen one, but please report it if you do, least these NP johnnies make off with all the loot.

 

[Elen Sentier]

Wow! Lucky you, Barn Owl. I've never seen one wild, only the captives at the Highland Wildlife Park. A very special moment

 

[Turnstone]

Wildcats are slowly returning to the forests in my area. But I have never seen one. Must have been a wonderful moment for you!

 

[JohnClayton]

I saw a cat on the island of Mull quite some years ago whilst out fishing some hill lochs. I saw it from a high banking sunbathing out of the wind on a sandy shore of one of the lochs I was going to fish, I always carry binoculars when out on the hills and sat and watched it from about 50 yards or so for a couple of minutes until it sensed and saw me and moved slowly away.
I have lived with domestic cats all my life and this animal that I saw was large and well built cat and would estimate its weight around 12 to 15 lbs, it looked like a large tabby but its tail was very distinct in that it had regular black bands with the tip being all black.
I can't say that it was for definite a pure wildcat but certainly looked the part.
I didn't report it at the time and didn't do so until another sighting of a wildcat and photographs were taken on Mull in 2010, after this sighting I reported mine to the Scottish Wildcat Association who keep a record of sightings.

JohnClayton

 

[scottpix]

Look up Maine coon (unbelievable) scary to think if they end up breeding with wild cats.

scott

 

[ARGONAUT]

The main issue with the cairngorm NP - too many ppl inside boundary with domestic cats with more towns planned - the NP is heaving with ferals and low value hybrids and if you dont cut off feral, hyrbid genetic input into wildcat, result will ne more and more hybrids. wildcat breeding with domestic is the primary threat followed by disease transfer from dom to good wildcat, snares with roadkill are the next biggest threats. The wildcats will always breed with another wildcat if possible, they only breed with dom ferals if they cant find one of their own. Its accepted now that the rabbit crash 2004 - 2006 greatly depleted wildcat survivor num's, studies and testimony from countless land owners, managers and workers all point to a wildcat population crash - same time as rabbits.

There are good looking wildcats in cairngorm but how good or pure they actually are can only be determined through DNA sampling - testing, actual scots pure wildcat genome was sequenced from 1 x musuem example in london - approx 150 yrs old.

there are wildcats analysed from trail cam images in the far north and N W coastal highland - that look perfect but yet again - how pure can only come from DNA testing. These areas aint suited to game bird rearing when compared with east highland, angus and north stirlingshire , meaning snares are located far more in these areas than NW highland and far north.

The cats referred to in the highland wildlife park are infact very good hybrids - they are not pure.

Also, in remote caithness sutherland with very low human densities and harsh winter conditions means low value hybrids and ferals simply cannot survive - not many nice humans around to leave food out and they lack the traits to hunt and forage food during bad winter - this aint a problem for an actual wildcat - outwith very deep snow.