Remote island of Taransay to be returned to its natural condition with Scottish wildcats

NEWS AND VIEWS: This is a story about a castaway island of the Isle of Harris in the north-west tip of Scotland called Taransay which, by the way, is where the television series Castaway was filmed starring Ben Fogle.

The island was bought by Adam and Cathra Kelliher in 2011. Adam Kelliher said:

"Our vision is to take the island back to the pre-intensive grazing, back to the Bronze Age. It will be covered by Atlantic rainforest. We are not talking about the Scottish straight pine, we are talking about a myriad of deciduous trees that thrived in the past."

The island is about 5 miles long by about 3 miles wide at its maximum width. It is a mystical place where visitors can renew their roots and connect with nature. It is said that people who visit Taransay leave it with a different attitude about life. It solitude, it's sense of nature, its quietness and tranquillity are all said to affect people deeply.

Beautiful Taransay where the Scottish wildcat may one day roam again.

And the vision of the Kellihers is to populate the island with trees, heather and flowers, mammals including deer, wild cattle, ponies, pigs, beaver, elks and as mentioned Scottish wildcats. A very grand scheme which if it works out at all will take many years.

Scottish wildcat

But, of course, what I like to see here is reference to the Scottish wildcat. This is a mammal which has been declared extinct because they say that the existing Scottish wildcats are in fact hybrids, the result of a matings between feral tabby cats and a genuine Scottish wildcats.

It is argue that there are no purebred Scottish wildcat left but having said that, it would be lovely to give them an island of about 15 mi² where they can thrive, where they can be be left alone. The only place where you might be lucky enough to see a Scottish wildcat currently is in Scotland but they were described as 'wildcats' in the past and they were present in the south of England.

The Scottish wildcat actually is the European Wildcat it's just that the Scots like to claim the species as their own!😀

Cathra Kelliher said that:

"People get quite emotional when they visit. There is something fundamental about your feet on those rocks, the feel of the Atlantic on your skin. It strips you of everything you don't need and you are left with just the core of what you are."

I think she describes it very, very nicely indeed. It is great to get back to your roots to the core of you, to connect with nature. I can see this island being a great attraction to many people in the future as the world becomes more and more complicated and arguably more more messed up with bad world leadership, climate change, and wars!

Management needed

In 2019 they took all the sheep off Taransay and there was an immediate explosion of flowers and wildlife but the grasses grew taller because there were no mammals to eat the grass. It isn't just about leaving things alone according to Adam Kelliher, it's about managing nature as well. I wish him well. If it goes well I might visit the place one day! 

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Scottish wildcat suffered "extinction by sex" and is making their last stand in the Cairngorms

Arguably, the Scottish wildcat is already extinct because even the best experts find it difficult to distinguish a hybrid Scottish wildcat from the real thing. The Scottish wildcat has been mating with domestic and feral cats for a very long time although it's become a lot worse over the last 60 years according to genetic research. The Times science editor, Tom Whipple, puts it very nicely by saying that it is "extinction by sex".

Scottish wildcat. A hybrid or a genuine wildcat? It's hard to tell the difference from appearance. You have to do DNA testing. This picture, I believe, as in the public domain.

As the habitat of the Scottish wildcat became fragmented because of human activities and as there are more people in Scotland than many years ago when there was a Scottish wildcat population, and as, as a consequence there are more domestic and feral cats in Scotland, and further, as there are less Scottish wildcats, the existing ones were much more prone to mate with domestic and feral cats than before. There was a gradual speeding up of what is called hybridisation which is the creation of hybrid Scottish wildcats, a cross between the purebred wildcat and the domestic or feral cat.

They look quite similar to the real item but if they are not purebred Scottish wildcats, they are not Scottish wildcats in my opinion. Anyway, they've bred some in captivity and released them in the Cairngorm region of Scotland with GPS collars and they hope that they will survive the winter. It is believed that they will but as I see it, this isn't just about appearance.

The Cairngorm region of Scotland where they hope the Scottish wildcat will make their last stand and thrive and grow their population. The image, I believe, is in the public domain.

A hybrid Scottish wildcat is not going to be as hardy and as capable in survival as the original wildcat that roamed the Scottish mountains thousands of years ago. In fact, the wildcat also lived in the south of England before around 1835 when the last one was shot by a landowner.

Yes, the wildcat lived in England but was persecuted to extinction except in Scotland where they were so much as persecuted as became extinct, as mentioned, by mating with domestic cats.

It's rather sad that for over 2000 years or more the Scottish wildcat lived happily throughout large parts of the UK and perhaps primarily in Scotland, mating with each other and remaining purebred and successful. But as human population numbers grew, humankind gradually encroached upon their lives and eroded their chances of survival.

As David Barclay, a conservation manager at Saving Wildcats said: in India where they have a similar problem trying to protect and conserve the Bengal tiger, at least you can recognise a Bengal tiger from all other cats. However, with the Scottish wildcat you can hardly tell the difference between a non-purebred wildcat and a purebred one. The markings are slightly different and in my view the hybrid version is a little bit more slender than the stocky and solid original, genuine item.

But this is where the problem really lies. It truly is extinction by sex and as I recall, it is the only example of this kind of extinction where you have a wild cat species which looks like the genuine article more or less but which isn't. 

Do you treat this cat as a Scottish wildcat? It seems that we have to because as I also recall the captive cats that they bred and have released are not purebreds, they are hybrids. This the best we can do and let's hope they survive the Cairngorm winter.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Welsh police mistook a tabby kitten for a Scottish wildcat and allegedly abused the animal

This is another example of the stupidity of UK police. Over and over again they screw up. They are as thick as bricks. In this instance it occurred in Wales. The police seized what is clearly a cute tabby kitten, Finlay, from an address in Conway, North Wales believing that he was an endangered Scottish wildcat! There are no Scottish wildcats in Wales. Pretty well everyone knows that. They seized the cat because they thought that Finlay was being kept without a licence.

Finlay - a tabby kitten seized by the idiotic police as an endangered Scottish wildcat! Pic in public domain.

They had the cat examined and decided that he was a standard tabby cat. But in the meantime, they had kept him in their custody in an inappropriate enclosure for over four months. Yes, it took them four months to figure out that they had a tabby kitten rather than a Scottish wildcat!! Idiots.

And the enclosure was unsuitable with mulch on the floor. Finlay is now in a rescue centre called Wildcat Haven. They say that when he was released by Welsh police, he was in a bad way having suffered psychological trauma. They say that he was "seized and detained, in our opinion, without due cause or reason by the North Wales police.

He was kept at an undisclosed location for 4.5 month and when he was seized by the police he was in prime physical condition and they had hoped that he would be cared for properly and returned in the same condition.

But sadly not. They say that "it is clear that Finlay has experienced serious physiological and psychological trauma at the hands of his captors". They mean the police. They further said that "We were assured by the police that Finlay was receiving specialist care. Such mental and physical deterioration in four-and-a-half months, does not suggest specialist care. It suggests abuse."

And that “The police also told us numerous times that Finlay was being kept in a naturalistic enclosure. However, notes provided to us by the police show that he was kept in an enclosure with a mulch floor. He didn’t even have grass under his feet."

North Wales police denied the abuse claims and said that he had been monitored for his well-being throughout. They say that while at the facility he was regularly examined by veterinary surgeons and that his weight remained stable. They say that investigators assessed Finlay's features and "found it may have a low proportion of wildcat genes" but not enough to consider it a Scottish wildcat. Ridiculous.

All domestic cats have some wildcat genes in them because they come from wildcats. Wildcats are their ancestors. There is no doubt in my mind that Finlay is a standard tabby kitten. A domestic cat. The North Wales police are acting idiotically and now trying to fudge the result by saying that Finlay had some wildcat in him.

As I said in the opening paragraph, this is another example of the UK police behaving badly and stupidly. If they only did their job and caught some criminals life would be a lot better in the UK. But they manage to catch just 5% of the criminals who've conducted criminal acts in this country. The criminals know that they will not be caught and the citizens of the UK are unsupported by the police. They are on their own.

Far too often UK police waste time on red herrings and escapades which are noncriminal when they should be focusing on crimes like burglary which they have completely abandoned and thefts.

All Scottish wildcats and kittens should be DNA tested for purebred status

NEWS AND OPINION: There is a nice story about Scottish wildcats today reported by the Daily Record. It concerns three Scottish wildcat kittens at the Five Sisters Zoo in West Calder, near Livingston. On their first medical they discovered that they have two boys and one girl. They look very much like Scottish wildcats with their tabby coats and slightly fierce appearance which is exactly the way you want it. The photograph on this page is from the Daily Record. There next job is to name them and they are looking for suggestions on their Facebook page.

Scottish wildcat kitten at his first medical. Photo: Five Sisters Zoo, via the Daily Record.

The report states that there are an estimated 35 Scottish wildcat in the wild in Scotland and that they are 50 times rarer than a giant panda. They may actually be rarer than that. In fact, they may no longer exist in purebred form. There's been so much interbreeding between domestic and feral cats and Scottish wildcats that it is plausible to argue that there are no purebred Scottish wildcats left in captivity or in the wild.

I don't know if any wildcats in zoos are purebred, such as these three darling kittens. I think that zoos should confirm to the public that they are genuine Scottish wildcats with no dilution of their DNA through crossbreeding with non-purebred Scottish wildcats.

Where a wild cat becomes extinct or is becoming extinct through interbreeding with other species of cat, it is beholden upon zookeepers who are in the business of conservation, they state, to make sure that they are caring for the genuine item and not a hybrid. For all I know these beautiful kittens may be hybrids and if they are you can't call them Scottish wildcats. One issue is that the appearance of a Scottish wildcat hybrid is very similar to the genuine article.

CLICK FOR PAGES ON THE EUROPEAN WILDCAT

I don't want to be too negative because it's a nice story but I've seen quite a lot of estimates as to the number of Scottish wildcats left in the wild over the years and they are just that: estimates. This leads me to believe that there may be none left which is a stark realisation.

Although people refer to this species of wild cat as a "Scottish wildcat" it is possibly or probably fairer to call this cat a European wildcat. I don't know whether it is true that there is a subspecies of wildcat called the Scottish wildcat. 

Also, please note that I use the word "wildcat" and the phrase "wild cat" for a specific reason. The phrase "wild cat" refers to any individual cat of any wild cat species whereas the word "wildcat" in my opinion refers to the species which is the 'wildcat'. It is complicated but I'm being particular about this.

Cait Sith - legendary cat and anthropomorphic fantasy cat

Cait Sith refers to two entirely different cats from different eras and it looks like the fantasy world has hijacked the original Cait Sith, which according to the folklore of the Scottish Highlands is a reference to a fairy cat. 

Cait Sith is larger than a domestic cat, black in colour and with a white spot on its chest. It has an arched back and erect bristles on its fur. It was, or perhaps even still is, believed to be a transformed witch. Dr. Desmond Morris believes that Cait Sith is now known as the Kellas Cat. This is a large black hybrid cross between feral domestic cats and Scottish wildcats. These are well-known but they are brown tabbies and it is believed that the Scottish wildcat has become extinct in the wild because of this constant hybridization.

Kellas Cat - photo: Wikipedia. 

Above: found in Aberdeenshire; on display in the Zoology Museum, University of Aberdeen. Sagaciousphil - Own work

In the modern fantasy fandom world, Cait Sith is an anthropomorphic remote-controlled plush toy cat standing over 3 feet tall with short black fur and the white stomach and face, in Final Fantasy VII and, for example, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. 

Cait Sith fantasy cat. Drawing: This file is copyrighted by Square Enix or one of its employees.  But it is low resolution and fair use is pleaded for its inclusion on this page.

He's a cat riding a giant stuffed toy moogle (whatever that is). He initially worked as a fortune-teller in the Gold Saucer. Cait Sith's motives for joining Cloud's party are initially a mystery we are told by a fandom website. The whole thing is a complete mystery to me, I have to admit!

Wildcat facts in brief

The African wildcat should probably be referred to as the African-Asian wildcat because they are part of the same species. I don't want to confine myself to the African wildcat. This wildcat which is the size of a domestic cat is most distinguished for the fact that the Near Eastern subspecies a.k.a. North African wildcat is the wild ancestor of the domestic cat. They still look very similar. The African wildcat looks a bit like a diluted tabby cat. In fact there are many hybrids in Africa, the product of matings between purebred African wildcats and domestic cats. You could hardly tell the difference. The same hybridisation has taken place in Scotland where you might argue there are a few left who are genuine wildcats. Unfortunately the Scottish species of this small wildcat has almost been wiped out or perhaps has been wiped out by hybridisation with domestic and feral cats.

This is said to be an African wildcat from the south of the continent. Photo by hyper7pro on Flickr.

The domestication of the African wildcat took place perhaps about 10,000 years ago and it still takes place today in Africa. It is an extraordinary story. In terms of the way they look if I was more accurate I would say they are a little bit larger than domestic cats and a bit more leggy i.e. the legs are a bit longer and the cat is a bit thinner and rangier than the domestic cat. 

They are nocturnal rodent-hunters and they inhabit a very wide range, all the way across large parts of Africa, avoiding the Sahara mainly, through to the Middle East and over to China. They are also present in parts of Europe (European wildcat) and as mentioned in Scotland (possibly). They're said to be in Turkey and in India. The full list of countries is to large to set out here but also includes Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Lebanon, Kazakhstan and Herzegovina.

Distribution of the wild cat 2020. IUCN Red List

If you want to know how the African wildcat behaves and lives you only have to look at the domestic cat. Our friendly, beautiful domestic cats inherited all those wonderful wild traits of the wildcat. The primary prey is small mammals such as mice and voles and sometimes birds, reptiles and insects. They mainly hunt on the ground but they climb trees beautifully and like vertical spaces. They drink very little water and our great survivors. We know their vocal repertoire because you just have to listen to your domestic cat to find out.

African and Scottish wildcat.

The population is decreasing which is unsurprising and their habitat type is said to be forest, savanna, scrubland, grassland and desert. You can see the general trend is towards a dry, arid habitat which is why the domestic cat is such a good non-drinker.

In Scotland, as mentioned, the Scottish wildcat is pretty well extinct and the threats to its existence across those large swathes of their distribution include hunting and trapping, as mentioned hybridisation by domestic cats, competition with feral cats for prey animals and human caused mortality through road kills. It is considered a pest in Scotland still which seems remarkable to me (is this true? Surely not bearing in mind the threat of extinction). Snaring and lamping in Scotland can sometimes kill them and habitat loss has led to declines in their population in Europe and in Russia in the 18th to mid-20th centuries.

What wild cats live in England?

The short answer is that no wild cats live in England. Just north of the border in Scotland there are some Scottish wild cats. They are part of the wildcat species. At one time it was thought there were about 400 of them. Now people believe there may not even be any genuine, purebred Scottish wildcats in Scotland. This is because they have crossbred with domestic cats to become hybrids.

This cat used to live in England but was extirpated and became extinct in England, as I recall, in 1835. This was because it was sport hunted to extinction. That's it. There is nothing more to say to answer the question in the title. It's a sad answer.

When is a Wildcat a Wild Cat?

We know that we have to protect and conserve endangered species and many of the wild cat species are endangered.  One of them is the Scottish wildcat. We also know that we have to deal with stray and feral cats. The way we deal with stray and feral cats is very often to euthanise them; in short, in many places they are killed because they are unwanted.

But in some places such as Scotland, the Scottish wildcat mates with stray and feral cats. This is interbreeding between a protected species and their domestic forms. In technical language the Scottish wildcat becomes an introgressed protected mammal. This means the genes from one species move into the gene pool of another species through interbreeding.

This results in hybrid Scottish wildcats.  The questions are:

• How do you tell a hybrid Scottish wildcat from a purebred wild cat?  There are slight differences so it is possible to do this but it's tricky.
• How do you deal with hybrid Scottish Wildcats?  On the one hand the cat is a feral cat to be disliked and on the other hand the cat is an endangered wild cat species albeit somewhat modified genetically. These are "in between cats".

You can see the difficulty facing conservationists and legislators.  People who create law often legislate about how to deal with stray and feral cats.  When they make these laws they have to define what a feral cat is in order to differentiate the feral cat from other species or types of cats.  Can they do it accurately bearing in mind what I have written above? How do conservationists deal with a melange of a species?

Many of the photographs that you see of Scottish Wildcats are almost certainly hybrids.  Many of the photographs that you see of African wildcats are also hybrids.  As I understand it, the North African wildcat is not yet endangered but when the time comes, as it surely will, to assess the African wildcat as endangered then it may be very difficult to know what to do about it because a lot of the cats will be hybrid domestic cats that look like African wildcats.

Cat in Heraldry

In heraldry the cat is an emblem of liberty; and rightly so! What better emblem than the independent and free spirited cat to signify freedom? Cats hate to be shut up. As an aside we should think about all the cats, wild and domestic in cages throughout the world. They should not be there. The cat is almost certainly the animal most often adopted by sports teams in one way or another; a sign of respect for the cat that is sadly and ironically abused not that uncommonly.

Many long established families or interrelated families have adopted the cat as their emblem. In Scotland we have the Clan Chattan or Clan of the Cats. This is an ancient clan that was founded, I am informed, at the close of the 13th century - an amalgam of several clans.

The crest is the Scottish wildcat. The Scottish wildcat is a wonderfully fierce cat that is barely hanging on in the UK today (2012). Even 100 years ago it was extinct in all but north Scotland. There are said to be 400 left but some are hybrids as they mate with domestic cats. The last time it was seen in England (and no doubt shot) was in the south west over 110 years ago.

Crest of Clan Chattan

The motto: Touch not the cat bot a glove is slightly amusing and wise at the same time. As mentioned, the Scottish wildcat is famous for its fiercely defensive aggression. In modern English the motto means; don't touch the cat without gloves. You wouldn't get near it! The chief of the clan was called, "Mohr au Chat" - the great wild cat.

The coat of arms of the family Keat of Devonshire is "Argent three cats in pale sable". In heraldry "argent" is the tincture of silver. The cats are meant to represent "mountain cats". They are almost certainly the wild cat of Great Britain now called the Scottish wildcat.

Keat of Devonshire Coat of Arms

It is said that a cat in a coat of arms should be square on showing full face and both ears and eyes. That would seem not to be the case above.

Keats as a family name is also ancient. It dates back to the Anglo Saxon race, well before 1066 A.D. In the United States there are some well known people whose surname is Keats: Ezra Jack Keats and author and John Keats a writer and biographer to name two. The best known Keats is the English poet John Keats (1795-1821).

The English surname Catte or Cat (there are other variations) was created sometime not long after 1066 A.D. It appears to have been developed from nicknames given to people who had the appearance and/or character of a cat. That would seem to be the way many names were started in ancient times.

Sources: Various! Including: Our Cats and all about them ISBN 978-1-84664-096-4, Wikipedia, Celtic Studio.com and Clan of the Cat.

Are there wild cats in England?

ANSWER: NO. We, the animal loving Brits, killed all the wildcats in England centuries ago! The last remaining wildcats are in the north of Scotland, an area with a low human population compared to most of England, where the last 400 wildcats in the UK can live in relative peace. These are called Scottish wildcats. The problem is that we aren't sure how many of this small population of cats are actually purebred because they mate with domestic cats. Are there any purebred wildcats in Scotland?

Scottish Wildcat Hybrids

Scottish wildcat or a hybrid? Photo by Peter G Trimming

At 2011, the greatest threat to the survival of the Scottish wildcat is its interbreeding (also called crossbreeding) with the domestic cat to create a Scottish wildcat hybrid. The purity of the wild cat is gradually eroded through interbreeding. The African wildcat also interbreeds with domestic cats. This is to be expected as the wildcat is the ancestor of the domestic cat. They are almost the same cat.

It can be difficult to see the difference in appearance between a Scottish wildcat hybrid and the purebred Scottish wildcat.

One fairly clear difference is in the tail. The wildcat has a thick tail with clear dark banding (4 rings) ending in a black tip. The rings nearer the root of the tail are fainter than those at the tip. The dorsal stripe that follows the spine stops at the beginning (root) of the tail.

The hybrid cat has a less thick tail and the dorsal banding follows through continuously from the cat's back to the tail.

There are other more subtle differences on the crown of the head where stripes run backwards to the body. On the wild cat they are "broad and wavy" while on the hybrid they are thinner and straighter. And on the rump of the hybrid the stripes have broken into spots.

Both are in cat fancy terms, mackerel tabby cats. The Scottish wildcat is a very stocky (cobby) looking cat. The domestic cat and hybrid are not as stocky it seems to me. Although people understandably find it difficult to tell the difference. This must impact the monitoring of the wildcat in terms of sightings.

The Kellas cat is a black (melanistic?) version of a Scottish wildcat hybrid.