Experts celebrate as two wildcats caught on camera

● Action group says both animals have domestic cat ancestry

Elusive Scottish wildcats have been captured on camera.

One of the animals was filmed exploring the ancient woodlands at Drum Castle, while another was photographed on a farm near Leith Hall, both in Aberdeenshire.

Often dubbed the “Highland tiger”, Scotland’s wildcat is among the UK’S most endangered mammals and is on the verge of extinction. The Scottish

FIFE

Highlands are their last stronghold.

A five-year national conservation plan, Scottish Wildcat Action (SWA), was launched in 2013 in a last-ditch attempt to save the native cats.

Work including surveillance and neutering of feral cats is now being focused in six areas identified as wildcat hotspots.

SWA conservationists said the Leith Hall feline was tested and found to have a strong genetic score of 75 per cent wildcat, meaning she has some domestic cat ancestry like most remaining wildcats.

The cat spotted at Drum Castle has been described as a “good hybrid”.

SWA project manager Roo Campbell first spotted the Leith Hall cat several years ago, in the Huntly area.

He said: “I detected this cat on camera when I was doing an earlier project putting GPS collars on cats in 2013 to 2014.

“She was using Leith Hall and a local farm, and was a regular visitor to the trail cameras I had placed there. I managed to get a collar on her and was able to look closely at how she used the area.

“I always hoped to see her again when we began the Scottish Wildcat Action project in the same area. We were sent some recent trail camera images from the farm and I realised it was the same cat.”

The sightings were on National Trust for Scotland (NTS) properties.

Richard Luxmoore, senior nature conservation adviser for NTS, said: “We tend to associate this elusive beast with the wilder parts of the Highlands but some of our best evidence comes from the more populated agricultural land in the north-east.”

It’s not known how many, if any, pure-bred wildcats remain in Scotland, with estimates ranging from 35 to 400.

The species first arrived in the UK 9,000 years ago, after the last ice age, but is dying out mainly due to cross-breeding with other cats but also because of habitat loss and persecution.