Separating hybrids from genuine Scottish wildcats is at the heart of the thorny problem facing conservationists. Lack of data – how many wildcats and hybrids are there, and where are they? – makes matters thornier still.
Wildcats are stockier than domestic cats, with a far broader head and longer canines (especially in males), stronger limbs and a thick tail. Traditionally, they have also been seen as untameable icons of Scottishness; one politician has declared that "they have the heart of a lion and are the tigers of our Highlands".
Scientists led by Andrew Kitchener of National Museums Scotland have created a visual scoring system to help distinguish wildcats from domestic tabbies.
Extensive patches of white on the paws or flanks are often a giveaway that a cat has some domestic ancestry, but there are also seven key wildcat characteristics to look for.
We included the Scottish wildcat in our round-up of the most endangered species in the UK and one of the rarest cats in the world.
How to tell a Scottish wildcat from your average tabby
Shoulders
Wildcat: Two stripes
Tabby: More than two stripes, which may be broken
Nape of neck
Wildcat: Four wavy, separated stripes run along nape
Tabby: Stripes may be straight and fused
Flanks
Wildcat: Continuous vertical tiger' stripes
Tabby: Stripes may be broken
Dorsal stripe
Wildcat: Runs down back and ends at base of tail
Tabby: Continues along entire length of tail
Rump
Wildcat: Stripes only
Tabby: Mixture of spots and stripes
Tail bands and rings
Wildcat: Broad; well-defined and separated
Tabby: Usually narrower and less distinct
Tail tip
Wildcat: Thick, fluffy and rounded; always black
Tabby: Tapers to a point: colour may vary
How to attract a Scottish wildcat
It's not easy! So researchers in Scotland are testing different bait and live-trapping techniques.
- Bait boosts the chances of wildcats approaching camera-traps and cage traps. Foods being trialled include tuna chunks wrapped in little parcels made from old pillowcases. Pungent tuna juice is then dribbled over the outside.
- Another attractor on test is a foul liquid sold to bobcat hunters in the USA. This is painted onto stakes: the hope is that territorial wildcats will rub against the posts to scent-mark them, leaving behind hair and thus their DNA.
- Various food lures, including tuna parcels, chicken drumsticks and smelly wings from roadkill pheasants, are strung up from low branches like a weirdly decorated Christmas tree.
- The aim is to start live-trapping wildcats soon. You could 'dress' your traps to make them look more natural, which may improve your success rate.
Where can you see wildcats in Scotland?
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.
Where can you see wildcats outside of Scotland?
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.
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 though, 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.
What are the threats to Scottish wildcats?
They face many other threats to Scottish wildcats – road traffic, accidental deaths in snares or traps, overgrazing 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.
Top image: Scottish wildcat kittens (Credit: Getty)