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The Scottish wildcat is a European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) population in Scotland. It was once widely distributed across Great Britain , but the population has declined drastically since the turn of the 20th century due to habitat loss and persecution.
The Scottish Wildcat Association was a charity founded in 2008 by filmmaker Steve Piper with the aims of conserving the Scottish wildcat, [1] [2] which is critically endangered in the UK. Threatened by hybridisation with feral domestic cats, recent estimates have suggested that only 35 pure Scottish wildcats exist in the wild, with no pure ...
The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) and the African wildcat (F. lybica).The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the African wildcat inhabits semi-arid landscapes and steppes in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia, into western India and western China. [2]
Scotland hosts the only populations of European wildcat (sub-species Felis sylvestris grampia) in the British Isles, with numbers estimated at between 400 and 2,000 animals. [8] In 2013 it was announced that the island of Càrna is to provide a sanctuary and breeding station in order to protect the threatened species. [9]
In Transcaucasia, the wildcat's diet consists of gerbils, voles, birds, and reptiles in the summer, and birds, mouse-like rodents, and hares in winter. [20] The Scottish wildcat mainly preys on European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), field vole (Microtus agrestis), bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus), wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus), and ...
Thomas identified one of the animals as a melanistic wildcat; [7] this juvenile male was the first wildcat ever documented as melanistic in Scotland. [9] Most of the other specimens examined were concluded to be hybrids but more closely aligned to the Scottish wildcat; only one hybrid leaned more towards a domestic cat. [10]
Kellas cat, a feral hybrid between the Highland wildcat and the domestic cat Highland or Highlander, names used for the British Longhair domestic cat breed, only and (inconsistently) by the pedigree registry Feline Federation Europe (which even refers to them as "Highland Straight" sometimes, despite that being the Scottish Straight Longhair).
Scotland hosts the only populations of the Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris) in the British Isles with numbers estimated at between 400 and 2,000 animals, [29] and of the red fox subspecies Vulpes vulpes vulpes, a larger race than the more common V. v. crucigera and which has two distinct forms. [30]