The Scottish Wildcat - on the verge of extinction

[Nathan]

Over the last few decades the awareness of such issues has steadily risen here in Scotland, though it is probably not widely known just how critically endangered the wildcat is. Hopefully the tide is turning however, and I sincerely hope that this beautiful animal can be pulled back from the brink.

As an aside, I once owned a cat that I always suspected was at least in part a wildcat hybrid. He was the offspring of a farm cat mother and an unknown father. He had most, but not all, of the distinctive wildcat features, and behaved quite differently to any other cat that I ever had.

I've read that the biggest threat to the Scottish Wildcat today is not trapping or taxidermy but hybridization with felis domesticus.