#scottish wildcat

[gwynever]

If this makes you sad, please consider donating to the Saving Wildcats project.

Saving Wildcats run a breed and release programme in the Caringorms, and a Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return programme for feral domestic cats around release sites.

They released the first group of wildcats in 2023, and in May 2024 camera traps documented that the first group had kittens!

You can donate directly at the Saving Wildcats page:

If you don't have the cash to spare, you can help out the project by going through the camera trap footage to identify wildcat sightings!

Propaganda:

The Scottish wildcat has been wiped out by breeding with domestic cats

After 2000 years of isolation, a few decades of interbreeding have rendered the animal “genomically extinct”

Though it lies in ruins on the northeast coast of England, Kilton Castle was once an imposing stone fortress, home to several noble families, and—it appears—at least eight cats. Archaeological excavations in the 1960s uncovered a well, at the bottom of which lay the bones of several felines dating back to the 14th century. The animals were an odd mix: Some were domestic cats, but other, larger specimens appeared to be European wildcats, a fierce, burly species that has inhabited the continent for hundreds of thousands of years. The two species’ closeness in death was deceptive. A study published today in Current Biology finds that even though European wildcats and domestic cats overlapped in Great Britain for more than 2000 years—including at sites such as Kilton—they appear to have almost never interbred. That changed suddenly about 70 years ago, when domestic cats began to mate with wildcats in Scotland. In the span of mere decades, the genome of the Scottish wildcat—the last remaining wildcat in Great Britain—has become so corrupted that the animal is now effectively extinct, a second study in the same issue finds. The findings could complicate ongoing efforts to save the most endangered mammalian carnivore in Great Britain...

Read more: https://www.science.org/content/article/scottish-wildcat-has-been-wiped-out-breeding-domestic-cats

[iris-polaris]

🟪 ANIMAL OF THE DAY: Scottish wildcat. Felis silvestris silvestris. not a domestic cat!! a fully wild cat found in Scotland. endangered because it keeps mating with house cats. probably out of Wedlock too. terrible

[jadeseadragon]

#Repost @scotlandisnow

"Following the release of Scottish wildcats into the Cairngorms National Park last year, this summer 'Saving Wildcats' are getting ready to release more into the population 🐈

Tracking their movements using GPS radio collars, we know 17 of the 19 released last June, have stayed within the project area. With some starting to settle down but most continuing to roam about the countryside, scoping out different areas.

As Scotland's last remaining native cat species, we're proud to support this project and make progress towards vital global conservation."

[roseate-felidae]

Scottish Wildcats from British wildlife centre

These are last years adolescents, hard to take good photos with the bars in the way. They came out for a feeding/talk. They were eating chicken chicks. There was four in one enclosure.

There were younger kittens in an adjacent enclosure. one kitten was brave enough to approach an adolescent close to the bars. The kittens came out after the feeding talk. the bars were at a bad angle and appear harsher in the photos.

Overall I was super happy to see living Scottish wildcats (I had seen many taxidermy specimens). it had been my dream for a long time. The photos aren't terrible and I saw kittens!!! I was interested to hear they can take down Muntjacs (one was recorded to take down a roe deer). These are not what Domestic cats are descended from (that is the African wildcat, Felis lybica). But they did remind me of little tabby cats and can hybridise. They used to native to all of the British isles. But now have small strongholds in Scotland. The kittens from here are released in programs when they are old enough. They are critically endangered. Threatened by hybridisation with free roaming domestics, habitat loss and were once prosecuted.

@mekanikaltrifle @robotslenderman @amber-tortoiseshell @lepurcinus @felinefractious finally got round to uploading my camera photos of the Scottish wildcats! not the best photos due to bars but I'm happy. also kittens!!!!

[striped-civet]

"Five critically endangered Scottish wildcat kittens have been born at the Highland Wildlife Park. Keepers have said they are doing 'extremely well' and are 'getting more confident' every day"

[annuskabriar]

europes small wild cats! the scottish wildcat is actually a subspecies of the european wildcat but since theyre iconic and since there'd otherwise only be three on this one i thought i'd em. on etsy as a print here and as a sticker pack here!

[thylacines-toybox]

Maisie (she/her)

Scottish wildcat by Nature Planet, bought from Edinburgh Zoo gift shop in July 2023. Her eyes have been replaced and she’s had some beans added.

Just a little before and after comparison of eyes!

[jayfrost-designs]

Up next for Ivypool's Heart designs, it's the second half of our wildcat pair, the lovely Stalk Purr! I loved these two characters, especially Stalk Purr, I loved the conversation she had with Ivypool about Bristlefrost.

Stalk Purr is not given a physical description beyond his pattern, but her species does not have nearly as much variation in build as domestic cats, so I stuck close to what a Scottish Wildcat should look like. She's a bit taller and leggier than her mate, but that's about it. I'm a little worried I made them look too different and that Stalk Purr doesn't look enough like a wildcat, but hopefully not?

For her pattern, Stalk Purr is described as a brown tabby wildcat. Again, didn't stray too far from what a Scottish Wildcat generally looks like - brown tabby, darker stripes on the points and chest, less pale belly fur, pale green eyes, etc. Again, ended up more different from Tumble Leap than I initially planned, but they both look like photos of wildcats I studied while drawing these, so hopefully they're both within the bounds of what's possible for their species?

Overall, despite my concerns, I am still fairly happy with how this turned out.

[beardedmrbean]

ICONIC SCOTTISH WILDCAT KITTEN BORN 😻

Small but mighty, they’re one of Britain’s RAREST mammals! Only around 100 remain in the wild making this little kitten, who has just turned nine months old, so incredibly special... 🫶

chesterzoo

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Conservationists are working to reintroduce the Scottish wildcat but face a massive numerical deficit and challenge. Lessons can be learned from its near demise, such as not waiting to conserve species until its nearly too late, the Scottish Rewilding Alliance’s Richard Bunting says.

Image by Charlie Marshall via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Small cats face big threats: Reasons to save these elusive endangered species

Researcher Philip Muruthi believes the serval (Leptailurus serval) could be an ambassador for African grasslands. With the ability to jump up to 1.5 meters (5 feet) in the air, it helps control small mammal populations in its habitat. “Serval cat ecotourism is another possibility,” Muruthi says. “They can be hard to spot, but when you see one in the wild, you never forget it."

Image courtesy of Nancy Lewis/African Wildlife Foundation.

Like their big cat cousins, small cat species can have strong cultural ties to human communities. Anthony Gerardo Pino Charaja of the Andean Cat Alliance explains that in countries like Peru, the Andean cat was long closely linked spiritually to the protection of livestock such as alpacas and llamas and was also designated as a deity of water.

Image courtesy of Andean Cat Alliance.

Clouded leopards prey upon a range of species including wild pigs and ungulates, helping control forest populations.

Image by Charlie Marshall via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

[smugcomputer]

cats of the world!

[travellingdailey]

Scottish Wildcat, Edinburgh Zoo

[jadeseadragon]

Scottish Wild Cat Kittens

Four rare and endangered wildcat kittens born in Scottish zoo (2020)

"Scottish wildcats are a European protected species and the only native member of cat family still found wild in UK."

"A survey carried out between 2015 and 2018 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found that in the wild only 20 per cent of wildcats are fully wildcat, while the remaining 80 per cent were cross-breeds or entirely domestic."

[roseate-felidae]

Scottish wildcats in British wildlife centre feeding (chicken chicks)

@mekanikaltrifle @robotslenderman @amber-tortoiseshell @lepurcinus @felinefractious

Ps. Tried to post this recently, my internet was not having it.

Sorry for weird background wind/plane? Noises

[sewingteeth]

A scottish wildcat kitten, for the imminent arrival of my close friends' baby. My hand embroidery is slowly improving but lord it's a struggle

[littlewildcat10]

Here's so photo's of Lee's spices, the Scottish wildcat. Hope this gives you all a little better idea now