Scottish wildcat

Scottish wildcat
Female and kitten at the British Wildlife Centre
Female and kitten at the British Wildlife Centre
Scientific classificationEdit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Felinae
Genus: Felis
Species: F. silvestris
Subspecies: F. s. silvestris
Population: Scottish wildcat

The Scottish wildcat is a European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) population in Scotland.[1] 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. It is now limited to northern and eastern Scotland.[2] Camera-trapping surveys carried out in the Scottish Highlands between 2010 and 2013 revealed that wildcats live foremost in mixed woodland, whereas feral and domestic cats (Felis catus) were photographed mostly in grasslands.[3]

It is listed as Critically Endangered in the United Kingdom and is threatened by hybridization with domestic cats.[4] Since all individuals sampled in recent years showed high levels of hybridisation with domestic and feral cats, this population is thought to be functionally extinct in the wild.[5]

  1. ^ Kitchener, A.C.; Breitenmoser-Würsten, C.; Eizirik, E.; Gentry, A.; Werdelin, L.; Wilting, A.; Yamaguchi, N.; Abramov, A. V.; Christiansen, P.; Driscoll, C.; Duckworth, J. W.; Johnson, W.; Luo, S.-J.; Meijaard, E.; O'Donoghue, P.; Sanderson, J.; Seymour, K.; Bruford, M.; Groves, C.; Hoffmann, M.; Nowell, K.; Timmons, Z. & Tobe, S. (2017). "A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group" (PDF). Cat News. Special Issue 11: 16–17.
  2. ^ Easterbee, N.; Hepburn, L. V. & Jefferies, D. J. (1991). Survey of the status and distribution of the wildcat in Scotland, 1983–1987. Edinburg: Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland.
  3. ^ Kilshaw, K.; Montgomery, R. A.; Campbell, R. D.; Hetherington, D. A.; Johnson, P. J.; Kitchener, A. C.; Macdonald, D. W.; Millspaugh, J. J. (2016). "Mapping the spatial configuration of hybridization risk for an endangered population of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) in Scotland". Mammal Research. 61 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1007/s13364-015-0253-x. S2CID 2222200.
  4. ^ Kitchener, A. C.; Yamaguchi, N.; Ward, J. M.; Macdonald, D. W. (2005). "A diagnosis for the Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris): a tool for conservation action for a critically endangered felid" (PDF). Animal Conservation. 8 (3): 223–237. Bibcode:2005AnCon...8..223K. doi:10.1017/S1367943005002301. S2CID 56282550.
  5. ^ Gerngross, P.; Ambarli, H.; Angelici, F.M.; Anile, S.; Campbell, R.; Ferreras de Andres, P.; Gil-Sanchez, J.M.; Götz, M.; Jerosch, S.; Mengüllüoglu, D.; Monterosso, P. & Zlatanova, D. (2022). "Felis silvestris". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2022: e.T181049859A181050999. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T181049859A181050999.en. Retrieved 7 September 2022.