Students from the University of Chester have been in the area recently, carrying out a survey which will contribute to a study they hope will help in the preservation of the Scottish wildcat.
The survey largely concerns local domestic and feral cats, as these offer a serious threat to the wildcat, either by transmitting disease or by encouraging cross-breeding and the loss of the wild gene pool through hybridisation. In fact, the number of feral and domestic cats in the area has fallen considerably over the last few years, mostly as a result of sterling work by local Cats Protection League members.
The students are working with the Scottish Wildcat Association, which highlights the fact that there are now only about 400 wildcats left in Scotland, some of which live on Ardnamurchan. They are extremely shy animals and very difficult to spot - in the fifteen years we have been here, we cannot say that we have seen one, though on two or three occasions we have glimpsed what might be one. The SWA site - which is well worth a visit - also highlights the fact that a fully-grown wildcat is twice as big as a typical domestic cat, can be extremely dangerous even to a fully-grown human, and the idea that the animal is a truly iconic British species - yet we are in imminent danger of losing it altogether.
Despite this, the good news is that the gamekeeper at Ardnamurchan Estate has reported that he is seeing more of them.
Photo courtesy Reg Mckenna on Flickr
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