Within a whisker of extinction

I VISITED Newtownmore in the Caringorms, Scotland recently.

There is a ‘wildcat centre’ on the main street and 70 porcelain cats, beautifully decorated by the local children, are positioned at strategic locations around the village. Visitors are invited to see how many they can find.

Locals claim Newtownmore is at the epicentre of the ‘highland tiger’ population. It’s a difficult claim to verify as wildcats, among the most elusive wild creatures in Britain or Ireland, are so secretive it’s almost impossible to observe them.

A ranger working in the area for 20 years told me that he had seen two dead ones, killed on the roads. The owner of a local restaurant claimed a cat caught in the headlights of her car some years ago, showed the dark rings around the tail which distinguish wildcats from tabbies. I found only one person who definitely saw a live ‘tiger’; a zoologist working with a nocturnal camera crew at a hide deep in the forest had seen one through night-vision binoculars.

You can, however, see the celebrated felines at the nearby Kincraig Wildlife Centre, a zoo which displays many of the local animals. Currently, they have 11, all of them raised in captivity. The wildcat resembles a large, rather stocky, tabby. It’s eyes give the impression of being closer together than those of its domestic cousin but this, I was told, is because its head is somewhat wider. The animals at Kincraig, which included a kitten, appeared cuddly and tame. I wanted to enter their cage and stroke one. If I did, their team leader quipped, he’d take me to hospital afterwards to have my hand sown back on.

Nobody really knows how many wildcats there are in Scotland. That there are any at all is a consequence of the First World War. Prior to that cataclysmic event, the great estates had gamekeepers who trapped all predators, including cats. When war broke out in August 1914 these men, skilled in the use of guns, were much sought after by the army. Almost all were drafted. Few of them returned after the war and so the wildcat survived. Now, a more insidious enemy faces the beleaguered tiger; the household cat.

The wildcat and the domestic cat belong to the same species. They have, however, slightly different backgrounds. Our western European pets are descended from the North African sub-species of wildcat. Sacred to the ancient Egyptians, it’s thought the housecat was domesticated about 4,000 years ago in the Middle East. The differences between the African race and that of northern Europe are not apparent on the surface, but the intestines tell a different story. Carnivores have short guts because flesh is easy to break down. Plant food is much harder to digest and so the guts of vegetarians tend to be long. Cats are mainly carnivorous but North African wildcats are less exclusively so; they scavenge more. Their guts, and those of their domestic relatives therefore, are slightly longer than in the European wildcat.

Domestication has changed cat behaviour. Wildcat females are solitary, holding exclusive territories within the large home-range of an even more anti-social Tom who visits and impregnates his females regularly. Housecat males, likewise, resent male intruders to their domains but domestic females can be quite sociable. Feral ones often form alliances and may even live in packs. These are particularly conspicuous in Greek and Italian cities where hordes of cats hang out in unoccupied buildings and are fed by the locals. In breeding cats for domestication, we have selected genes for friendliness and sociability. These changes have far-reaching consequences however. Wildcats are interbreeding with domestic ones in Scotland and mainland Europe. Most of the potential partners a wildcat encounters nowadays are domestic.

If nothing is done, the highland wildcat population might eventually consist mainly of multicoloured cats. But how do we protect the wild stock from genetic pollution? Should there be a neutering programme for domestic Toms in areas such as the Cairngorms? Ironically, while wildcats are given the highest protection status, domestic cats, the same species, are deemed to be pests and given no protection at all. What a bizarre legal conundrum.