no longer a viable wildcat population living wild in Scotland
March 4, 2019 11:09 AM Subscribe
New international report sets out how Scottish wildcats can be saved from extinction [Scottish Natural Heritage] Wildcat in Scotland - Review of conservation status and activities [on Nature.scot] - citation of the report and link to PDF
Scottish wildcat on verge of extinction, report finds [The Guardian]
Scottish wildcat on verge of extinction, report finds [The Guardian]
ugh this is really depressing (not a very uplifting day on the blue here...)
but you know this kitty has the gnarliest Glaswegian accent.
posted by supermedusa at 1:11 PM on March 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
but you know this kitty has the gnarliest Glaswegian accent.
posted by supermedusa at 1:11 PM on March 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm another fan of the Netflix documentary. But it did talk about the potential need to re-introduce a wild population based on some members of the current captive cats: that would allow the genetics and the dispersal distance to be controlled.
Last year, on a very wet December evening drive between Tarbet and Lochgilpead - my car's headlights lit up a creature about the size of a labrador - but definately not with the face of one - eating carrion by a road side. To me it looked like a Eurasian Lynx - I would guess an escaped individual because the species has been extirpated from Scotland several hundred years ago. The animal has been successfully re-introduced to several European countries and some people have talked about doing so in Scotland. In the last century the percentage of forest cover in Scotland has grown quite a lot - according to the linked study - enough to support maybe 400 animals. My guess it that a lynx is large enough to regard a domestic or feral cat as an hors d'oeuvre rather than a mate - so less risk of hybridisation than with wildcats.
posted by rongorongo at 10:23 PM on March 4, 2019
Last year, on a very wet December evening drive between Tarbet and Lochgilpead - my car's headlights lit up a creature about the size of a labrador - but definately not with the face of one - eating carrion by a road side. To me it looked like a Eurasian Lynx - I would guess an escaped individual because the species has been extirpated from Scotland several hundred years ago. The animal has been successfully re-introduced to several European countries and some people have talked about doing so in Scotland. In the last century the percentage of forest cover in Scotland has grown quite a lot - according to the linked study - enough to support maybe 400 animals. My guess it that a lynx is large enough to regard a domestic or feral cat as an hors d'oeuvre rather than a mate - so less risk of hybridisation than with wildcats.
posted by rongorongo at 10:23 PM on March 4, 2019
(With relation to the above - I note that the location where I believed I saw the lynx happens to be the same spot in Kintyre where the Lynx Trust are talking about a release of the species.)
posted by rongorongo at 11:44 PM on March 4, 2019
posted by rongorongo at 11:44 PM on March 4, 2019
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posted by briank at 11:24 AM on March 4, 2019 [2 favorites]