From Issue Two of Hidden Scotland Magazine

Scottish Wildcat - The Highland Tiger

Scotland’s rarest cat: its history, its plight and the work to save it.

Words by Emily Rose Mawson · Photographs by Saving Wildcats

Printed in Issue Two of Hidden Scotland Magazine, Spring and Summer 2021.

As majestic as they are rare, Scotland’s wildcats are facing a desperate plight. Since they arrived in Britain over 9,000 years ago, numbers have dwindled to double digits. Here we trace their history, characteristics, and what is being done to save them.

Golden eagles, red deer and red squirrels – these are among the wildlife you might spot in the Highlands. The Scottish wildcat is also on the list, but to sight one? For that you would have to be extraordinarily lucky. Scottish wildcats, fondly dubbed Highland tigers, are an isolated population of the European wildcat, Felis silvestris, and numbers have dwindled to a worrying low. Experts describe the species as functionally extinct, with the remaining individuals too fragmented or hybridised to count.

This is not a case of domestic cat gone wild. Wildcats can be a similar size to pet cats, but they have thicker, tiger-striped coats and blunt, bushy tails with distinct black rings. More importantly, the Highland tiger is one of our island’s last remaining natural predators. It has an angular jaw adapted for crunching live prey – mainly rabbits, mice and voles – and it pounces with power.

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