We REALLY Need To Accept That The Scottish Wild Cat Is Gone

 

It appears that no one reads the old pre-20th century literature or books published shortly thereafter pertaining to wildlife. Although all the information is there and freely available it seems that dogma laid out in the early 20th century (in fact many museums were displaying hybrid cats as genuine wild cats and criticised for doing so in the late 19th century) has simply been "copy and pasted" by generations.

This lack o0f knowledge means that there is a false history of British wildlife. Deer, hares, red squirrels and many other animals were imported from Europe (more intensely in the 19th century) to replace 'hunting stock' which, if those carrying out DNA work are unaware of means that false results are presented.  Any wild animal in the UK tested would produced European origin DNA because that is where their ancestors originated.  Much more intense DNA work is required to find non-European DNA in British wildlife.

But now back to wild cats. According to the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, based in Oxfordshire:

"Scottish wildcat hybrids challenge classic assumptions of generalist and specialist species, occurring across a broad range of ecological conditions and geographical ranges, but also having highly specialised individuals.

The study, published by WildCRU and NatureScot researchers, is the latest update to ongoing wildcat research in Scotland. The current project focusses on the threat of hybridisation between wildcats and introduced domestic cats on wildcat populations across Europe, and will be used to inform ongoing efforts to restore the wildcat to Scotland.

Read the latest research http://bit.ly/40FgGlV

Researchers: Samuel Cushman, Zaneta Kaszta, Ruairidh Campbell, Kerry Kilshaw, Martin Gaywood and David Macdonald."

My response, which will probably be ignored again:

"Too late. Even in the 18th century noted naturalists wrote that the wild cat would have become "extinct hundreds of years ago had it not been for breeding with feral domestic cats". In Europe the interbreeding with feral domestics goes to well before the Roman period and in the UK it is stated that ferals have been interbreeding with wild cats since Roman times at least.

"Some of the larger wild cats (hunted by dogs with spiked leather collars to avoid the dog being killed) persisted until, perhaps, the late 18th century. In 1897 a learned gathering of naturalists in Scotland declared that the "Scottish wild cat had become extinct around the 1830s" as this was attested to by a naturalist who had studied the animals for 40 years.

"When I set up t6he Wild Cats and Ferals Study in 1980 I also fell for the dogma that still insists the current very hybridised European wild cat tabbies promoted as true Scottish wild cats were just that. The Red Paper 2022: "Felids" presented the evidence as well as taxidermy showing what the last vestiges of the old wild cat truly looked like."