In an effort to stave off the possibility of extinction of the Scottish wildcat in the wild, a collaboration between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland and the Cairngorms National Park Authority under the umbrella of project “Saving Wildcats”, twenty-two wildcats were bred in captivity and the first group of kittens have been released into the wild with GPS-radio collars.
A single wildcat has died under this scheme of peritonitis, a viral infection as revealed after an autopsy carried out by an expert veterinary team.
There are plans to release another 13 kittens also bred in captivity next summer when conditions will be more amenable to their survival.
The partnership extends to conservationists in Sweden and Andalusia, Spain.
The kittens were born at RZSS’s Highland Wildlife Park. The Scottish wildcat mainly feeds on mice and voles. The winter is expected to be harsh for them due to a lack of prey and therefore a delay to their release is necessary.
Helen Senn, RZSS’s head of science and conservation programs said that the UK’s first ever release of wildcats was a success at the moment. She added that:
“Life in the world is full of risks and while most of the wildcats are currently doing well, it would be highly unusual for all to survive the first year. The field team were alerted to a potential mortality through movement data recorded by GPS collars. A post-mortem examination carried out by our expert veterinary team revealed the cat died suddenly of peritonitis, an infection. Further releases and many more years of conservation action will be required to increase the likelihood of saving this iconic species in Scotland.”
Comment: I have a couple of personal thoughts on this. Many years ago, I wrote many articles about the Scottish wildcat. At that time, it was said that there were an estimated 400 individual Scottish wildcat left in the wild in Scotland which was near the point where the species had become unviable because of inbreeding which can cause sterility.
And it was consistently stated that the big problem was that purebred Scottish wildcat were mating with feral cats and indoor/outdoor domestic cats. The offspring were first filial hybrids which are almost indistinguishable from the purebred parent.
The reports on this rewilding and conservation programme, do not address this critical point. It is important because it is plausible to suggest that the Scottish wildcat kittens bred in captivity under this program are not purebred but hybrids, perhaps first filial hybrids. They might even be second filial hybrids for all I know.
I think that the reports really should address this point because if this current crop of kittens are not purebred wildcats it cannot be said, in all fairness, that the program is a success. I would like to see some DNA evidence that these are purebred wildcats.
There is one last point to make which is this. The Scottish, quite naturally, like to think that they have their own wildcat species but, in truth, this is a European wildcat. Scotland is essentially part of Europe as is the UK and there are European wildcats on the continent of Europe. I don’t think that the Scottish wildcat is any different physiologically or in terms of their genetic make up from their European cousins unless there has been a drift away through evolution over thousands of years from the European wildcat on the mainland, which to the best of my knowledge has not occurred.
