Save our wild Scottish cat
The Scottish wildcat is going extinct: an irreplaceable feature of our natural and cultural heritage, and our only surviving native feline, it has survived centuries of intense deforestation and persecution. It is losing the battle to hybridisation: cross-mating with feral domestic cats, which outnumber wildcats by 1000:1 across the Highlands.
There may only be 35 pure Scottish wildcats left, which face an impossible task finding each other to produce the next generation.
Over the last ten years statutory agencies have spent half a million pounds of public money talking about saving the wildcat, whilst over the last five years Wildcat Haven has spent less than £100,000 of grants and donations from the US, China, commercial sponsors and the international general public creating a vast, threat-free haven where the Scottish wildcat can thrive again.
This is the only chance that the pure wildcat has, and over the next five years we will expand to over 800 square miles and start bringing the true wildcat back.
These cats matter: evolved by nature for millions of years to fit perfectly into our ecology, we are losing them to apathy, indecision and irresponsible ownership of pet cats: a species that heavily over-populates putting intense pressure on native species and greatly damaging the environment.
Report a Sighting
We are particularly interested in sightings in the West Highlands, though if you think you may have seen one somewhere else we're always interested in hearing about it.
Please do read through the identification details below: hybrids look extremely similar to wildcats and we often receive sightings which look very little like wildcats! If you think what you saw came close then please e-mail any details you can remember about the cat and location, along with any photos or video, to:
sightings@wildcathaven.co.uk
Your name, email address and all details provided to us will be held in perpetuity on a database maintained by us and utilised for identifying areas with potential for pure wildcats. The data will be shared with legitimate research efforts benefiting wildcats by recognised experts and organisations who commit to respecting data protection and privacy laws in their use of the database.
Identification
Telling Scottish wildcats from domestic cats is simple, but telling them from hybrids which can take many forms is very difficult. Text books, news articles and research papers are littered with images of hybrid cats labelled as wildcats.
You can help them and every penny/cent counts.
Here is where I have set up a crowd fund project for them
Thank you
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