Great Scottish cat hunt

Bid to stop wild felines ‘going soft’

ARMED with cameras, scented lures and baited cages, they will be pursuing a very peculiar prey.

For a gang of high-tech hunters is being hired... to trap cats.

In an move designed to safeguard the distinctive Scottish wildcat, the taxpayer is funding a team of trackers to head into some of Scotland’s remotest areas.

Conservationists fear that wildcats – a genetically separate species – are facing extinction, as a result of interbreeding with domestic cats.

Now hunters are being recruited to head the wildcats’ last stronghold, to trap and neuter any feral or stray household cats. And as anyone knows who has ever tried to bundle their pet into a cage ahead of a trip to the vet, it won’t be an easy task.

Prospective trappers are being warned about bites and scratches as well as diseases like toxoplasmosis and tuberculosis.

To help, they will be issued with 50 spy cameras and 40 separate traps. Any wildcats which wander into the traps will have to be released.

Any other cats will be examined and, if appropriate, will be taken to the vets to be neutered and vaccinated before being released.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) said the trapping project – which will be carried out in the Angus glens north of Kirriemuir – was ‘a significant step forward’ in preserving the Scottish Wildcat.

A spokesman said: ‘One of the major threats to our dwindling wildcat population is cross-breeding. This must be stopped if the wildcat is to survive as a distinct species.’

Wildlife charity Scottish Wildcat Action is also involved in the project. Manager Dr Roo Campbell said: ‘We have known or suspected for years that Scottish wildcats were interbreeding with domestic cats, either feral domestic cats or home cats. Over time, these “hybrid” cats living in the wild become less and less wild. The distinctive, iconic species we have, becomes diluted.

‘They become less well-adapted to their natural environment. Yes, it makes them “soft”.’