Scotland's Cat; 400 and counting...

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 decade.

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

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

Sadly, our wildcat is critically endangered with only 400 individuals remaining in the wild and barely a handful in the captive breeding population. Currently acting as advocates for the wildcat to the general public and media, in the near future we plan full charitable registration and the launch of a number of campaigns to raise awareness of this extinction threat and of the ways to prevent it. We are also already supporting scientific research, helping gather eye witness sightings for the official SNH wildcat survey, and maintain close relations with the captive breeding program and encouraging wildlife parks and breeders to sign up to it.

We hope you will enjoy our website and the beautiful photography donated by a number of photographers and filmmakers sympathetic to the wildcat's cause, please support our campaigns, display our web banners and, if you enjoy social networks, come and be our friend on Myspace!

Latest news and updates

30/12/2008; BBC invite reply
Our thanks to BBC News for inviting us to comment on the recent big cat story, you can read the article here.

19/12/2008; Woman attacked by big cat in the Highlands? Or really terrible journalism?
Some visitors may have read the recent press on an unfortunate lady in Scotland getting attacked by either a "big cat" or a wildcat. The police consulted us, and several experts who consented with our opinions, and agreed the full facts which detailed how this very unfortunate and brave lady incited one wildcat attack jumping into a fight between it and her own pet cat, and more recently incited an attack from a large feral domestic cat, probably with young, scavenging her bins which she caught by surprise. While the lady was at no fault whatsoever in the matter and doing things natural to most of us, to a wild living cat she is some 5 times taller, a member of a species that routinely kills them and took it by surprise, so defensive aggression is not an unusual response.

We have raised complaint with the BBC and local police for their reporting variously of a big cat or wildcat on the loose which may be hunting young children, The Scotsman went as far as upgrading the cat from a three foot long creature into one that was variously four feet long, potentially a mountain lion and that pro-actively stalked and hunted the lady through a forest.

These suggestions are absolutely ridiculous scaremongering; even if we are wrong and there is a big cat on the loose, telling young children to be scared of it and run away screaming is the worst possible advice because it incites the prey drive in cats. So a big "well done" to the BBC, STV, Scotsman, local police and the UK's radio stations for making even more people scared of nature and wildlife and making absolutely sure that if there is a dangerous predator out there your children know how best to encourage it to attack and kill them for food.

Our recommendation is that if your pet is ever attacked by a wild animal try and scare the wild animal off from a distance by making noise, throwing stones or as a last resort using a stick to push the aggressor away; jumping in will get you attacked just as it can with pet dogs that get in little scraps with each other in every park in the world. If you need to put your bins out, make some noise doing it so that any scavenging animals hear you coming and have a chance to run off. Never run from an aggressive animal of any kind, back away slowly, calmly and confidently.

How simple is that? Pretty simple when you know how, and pretty simple to report in a newspaper for the greater good and as a precaution, but it's obviously preferable to cause nationwide panic, abject misunderstanding and to give new blood to long buried game estate propaganda that wildcats are man killers; propaganda that even game estates would be embarassed to try and suggest now but obviously completely reasonable to the police, Scotsman, BBC and STV.

21/11/2008; Christmas presents? Say it with wildcats!
If you still have some empty slots on your presents list have a quick browse around our little store and see if anything takes your fancy, all the items on offer are donating a portion of their earnings to the Association so it;s a great way to get a nice gift and help the wildcats while you do it. From the beautiful wildcat bronze by artist David Mayer to the re-released classic Mike Tomkies book or the critically acclaimed DVD there's something for everyone, you can see a trailer for the film below!