snares. “When at bay wildcats spit, stamp and go ‘Pah!’
a lot, but in truth they’re very shy. Most of my chance
sightings have been shadowy forms slipping into the
undergrowth,” he laughs.
Wildcats aren’t uniquely Scottish either, occurring as far
away as China and South Africa. Until the deforestation of
medieval times, they prowled much of mainland Britain as
well. (The Cheshire Cat is not merely a figment of Lewis
Carroll’s imagination – it really did once exist.)
But as with red kites that were once widespread in our
lowlands and then driven back to the valleys of mid-
Wales by heavy persecution, so too wildcats retreated,
this time to Scotland. By 1880, they were found only
north of the border. Some experts
say that the heavier build and
darker coats of Scottish cats now
merit classification as a regional
subspecies, Felis silvestris grampia;
most, however, argue that they’re
more or less the same as in the rest
of Europe.Patchwork-quilt cats
Given half a chance, wildcats shun windswept uplands,
preferring to stay below 650m in a patchwork of pasture,
forest-edge, river valleys, scrub, gorse-covered slopes and
the lower edges of moorland. They’re good at exploiting
‘edge effects’– that is, the zones where one habitat and
community of species shades into another.
Wildcats are drawn to this varied terrain because it is
home to their favourite prey – rabbits (which in eastern
Scotland form up to 70 per cent of their diet) and rodents
such as voles and mice (representing about half their diet
in the west). Inevitably, they also meet more domestic cats
here. Since the domestic cat’s wild ancestor is the Arabian
wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica, which split from European
wildcats over 200,000 years ago, interbreeding alters
their genetic make-up. They face many other threats – road
traffic, accidental deaths in snares or traps, over-grazing
by deer and sheep that makes the landscape less suitable
for small mammal prey, and (over the past 15 years) falling
rabbit populations caused by viral haemorrhagic disease.
But hybridisation seems to be the most insidious danger.Historically, wildcats
occurred in much of
Britain, including all of
Scotland and a few islands
in the Inner Hebrides, such
as the Isle of Skye and
Bute. By the early 1900s,
they had retreated to the
north-west Highlands.
Today, wildcat strongholds
are thought to include
the Cairngorms, the
Black Isle near Inverness,
remote parts of Caithness
and Sutherland, and the
Ardnamurchan Peninsula.Facing page:
wildcats stalk
a wide range of
small prey, from
mice to frogsPossible wildcat
record from
2006–08 surveyCaithnessSutherlandCairngormsEdinburghGlasgowInvernessSurvey data from Scottish Natural HeritageDomestic cats have
been in Britain for
2,000–3,000 years,
so hybridisation is
nothing new
SCOTTISH WILDCATS
WILDCAT
DISTRIBUTION
IN SCOTLAND
ARDNAMURCHAN
PENINSULA
A sparsely populated
finger of land thought
to be a wildcat haven- its isolation may have
minimised the advance
of feral cats. Naturetrek
offers night drives with
an outside chance of
seeing a wildcat.
AIGAS FIELD CENTRE
Primarily a base for
wildlife-watching tours
and education, Aigas
is also home to captive
wildcats that visitors
may watch from a hide
by prior arrangement.CARNA ISLAND
A project backed by
the Aspinall Foundation
plans to catch wildcats
and breed them on
this small uninhabited
isle, ready for eventual
release elsewhere.HIGHLAND WILDLIFE
PARK, NR AVIEMORE
Run by the Royal
Zoological Society of
Scotland, the park has
five wildcats on view at
present, and will be a
vital part of the future
captive-breeding effort
(in which cats will be
kept off-show).EDINBURGH ZOO
The Royal Zoological
Society of Scotland HQ
is a wildcat captive-
breeding centre and the
base for the Highland
Tiger public-awareness
project. Its WildGenes
lab is creating a genetic
profile for wildcats.Sir John Lister-
Kaye introduces
the Aigas wildcats