Scotland's cat; less than 400 remain...

Far back in the history of Scotland clans formed together under the image of the wildcat and fought wars for the independence of the land. Today less than 400 Scottish wildcats remain in the wild and the extinction of Britain's last large mammal predator could come within the next five years.

Welcome to the home of the Scottish Wildcat Association, a charitable organisation dedicated to protecting and conserving Britain's only remaining wild feline; the Scottish wildcat.

No angry tabby or feral the wildcat is a genuine wild species of cat; it was here long before we were and long before the domestic cat had even evolved. Infamously the only wild animal to be completely untameable, even when captive reared, Scottish wildcats may look a little like your pet cat but these are incredibly tough super-predators, sometimes called the Tiger of the Highlands.

Sadly, our wildcat is critically endangered with less than 400 individuals remaining in the wild and barely a handful in the captive breeding population. We carry out a wide range of campaigns and projects designed to rebuild and conserve the wildcat population across the Scottish Highlands through active fieldwork, support of scientific research, fundraising for the captive breeding programme and general public education and awareness.

On this website you can learn more about Scottish wildcats, our conservation projects and lots of ways you can get involved, from posting a banner on you website to helping raise money or volunteering your time.

Latest news and updates

18/08/2010; Summer updates!
Well it's been one of those long gaps in updates caused by a flurry of preparations work for the Wildcat Haven project which is now counting down towards fieldwork this winter. Wildcat Haven is our plan to save the wildcat, put together with a mountain of help from conservation experts, welfare organisations and the people who live and work around western Lochaber in the Highlands.

Wildcat Haven
Over the next ten years we'll be neutering feral cats on a scale never seen before and helping researchers from a variety of UK universities detail wildcat population, hybridisation, diseases, prey resources and habitat usage across almost 7000 square miles of the Western Highlands. Coupled with initiatives to raise public awareness, reforest the landscape, breed in captivity and support locally owned tourism already in the region we hope to develop a self sustaining haven for wildcats with no feral cats, very few other threats and an expanding population of about 1,000 of them running around the hills.

Through the last month we've spent lots of time in beautiful Ardnamurchan and Sunart meeting up with local tourism operators, community councils, landowners and residents to let them know about our plans and to get to know a lot more about the region and it's wildlife which is incredibly varied. Some areas are overrun with rabbits but have no cats, others have plenty of cats and no rabbits, everywhere is abundant with pine marten and the wildcats might even be feeding on them, just as golden eagles have apparently turned to eating foxes for lack of rabbits! Everywhere we've gone we've been met with interest and enthusiasm and we can't wait to get things really rolling in winter, but the work has already begun, with the lovely people at Resipole Farm in Sunart already laying traps for a few resident ferals who have an appointment with the equally lovely people at CC Evans Vets in Fort William!

Big thanks also to Ardnamurchan Cats Protection for all their support, advice and cat identification help and the excellent Ardnamurchan Natural History Centre who are in the process of adding a big wildcat exhibit for next year and kindly let us take a hair sample from their stuffed wildcat for genetic analysis!

In the near future we'll be publishing our action plan for the project which has grown incredibly from a plan to neuter feral cats, whilst we're naturally focusing our resources on the feral neutering and things to directly help the Scottish wildcat some of the other projects spinning off from that work include research into feline diseases by Edinburgh University, research into hybridisation by Chester and Oxford University that will ultimately tell us how many pure wildcats are left and create essential data for use by conservationists in other countries with wildcats, efforts to expand native forestry projects by Trees For Life, efforts to build the captive breeding program by the Aspinall Foundation, the creation of welfare enhanced live cat traps with the Small Cat Conservation Foundation, Feline Advisory Bureau and a slew of experts including conservation organisations and welfare groups like Cats Protection.

Between us all we hope to see a great decade ahead where all the blanks are filled in for understanding of the Scottish wildcat, we finally start to see numbers increasing again rather than declining and we create new knowledge and ideas that can be duplicated in other countries; perhaps best of all, we get to see conservation and welfare going hand in hand for the interests of all the animals in the environment under the banner of the Scottish wildcat, Britain's most endangered mammal.

Haven volunteers
If your name is already on the list you will hear from us soon, but we will shortly be setting some dates for fieldwork projects including a pet cat survey and feral cat neutering in Ardnamurchan, places are quite limited this year but we're interested in anyone interested and will need lots more hands on deck next year. We still desperately need to find some more volunteers with Mountain Leader qualifications especially to keep an eye on everyone's health and safety out hillwalking! Drop a line to admin@scottishwildcats.co.uk if you can help this winter or Sept-Dec 2011.

Member news and AGM
For any members passing through (we'll be sending more details direct to emails later this week), membership renewals that are due, are no longer due! We're extending early memberships until after our first AGM coming up in Sept/Oct as soon as the year 1 accounts are completed, when your membership is due for renewal we will drop you a line! More newsletters are also on the way including a Wildcat Haven special with new editor Barbara taking over from the ever busy Steve. If you'd like to become a member, get a beautiful Laurie Campbell photo print and the right to vote on all things SWA drop by the Membership page.

Sponsor Dawn!
Massive thanks to Dawn the marathon runner who completed the Castle of Mey 10k in just under an hour raising over £900 for the Association; incredible work! Thanks to all of you who sponsored Dawn as well, and if you want to set up a sponsored anything for wildcats check out www.justgiving.com who can sort out online and credit card money transactions for you to make getting sponsors a little easier.

Thanks David!
A big thank you also to sculptor David Mayer who continues to be a huge supporter of the wildcat, so far his bronze sales have raised around £1000 for the Association and he's just getting started on some sketches and paintings which will soon be available as cards and prints through the website shop, more details here soon. David makes lots of gorgeous bronzes with cats a particular speciality, check out his work here.

And finally...
If you're in the East Highlands drop in on a new feature, the Wildcat Experience in Newtonmore which is a fun range of activities designed to get people out and about around this pretty area of the Cairngorms spotting the brightly painted wildcat models hidden all around the place. Look out for the real thing too; a sighting that made us all smile this month told us about a curious dog on a walk who jumped in to a gorse bush to check out an odd smell only to leap back out again looking rather perturbed and surprised, his owner investigated to find a tiny wildcat kitten, back arched and hissing wildly at them both, all ready for a fight. Fortunately mum was off hunting or there would have been real trouble!

If you ever come across a wildcat kitten alone, do as this dog walker did and immediately move away from the area. Kittens are routinely left alone by mum when she goes to find food, if she comes back to find the kitten has run off scared or smells of a human that picked it up, she may abandon it!

More news on Wildcat Haven, wildcat sponsorship and wildcat plush toys coming soon...

Check out the latest images in our Flickr pool!

Buy wildcat stuff, save Scottish wildcats!
All the items in our shop have pledged donations to the Scottish Wildcat Association for every sale; you can find Mike Tomkies books, David Mayer's beautiful wildcat bronze, first day stamp covers, art prints, Association merchandise or the Coffee Films DVD available with lots of new products being added in the near future, you can see a trailer for the DVD below!