Extinction of the Scottish Wild Cat (1 Viewer)

[Jon.Bryant]

but ecologically are feral cats not just filling the same niche?

Hmmm, I think it is a dangerous game to let an introduced or domestic species fill a perceived ecological niche. I say perceived, as I am sure that at one time the niche was different - perhaps sandwiched between pray and predators that are also now probably in decline or extinct.

Domestic cats seem very prolific breeders and very adaptable to their surroundings. So I doubt that letting them be, will ‘restore’ the balance of nature. I suspect (although organisations like the RSPB say otherwise - perhaps as they don’t want to offend many of their subscribers) that the moggy (domestic or feral) is a menace to our wildlife.

As you will know from New Zealand, introductions (even reintroduction that are not carefully planned and thought through) can have unintended consequences.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

Is that the reason why they stayed in the Highlands?

The Highlands of Scotland are pretty isolated, with the quite intensely farmed Lowlands largely separating the area from the upland moors of England. It would therefore seem likely that any wanderer would come across increasing human presence and perhaps sub-optimal habitat - in past times perhaps increasing the risk of detection and persecution.

That said, even when I visited the Highlands in the 1980’s, wildcats were incredibly difficult to find - my friend working in the Highlands, alleged that the BBC even resorted to setting up a pen and using cats from Edinburgh zoo, as it was impossible to find and film them in the wild. Perhaps this is just a storey, but I can imagine that if cats do (or did) wander from the Highlands when numbers were low, they may well have been undetected. The consequences would probably also not be great - isolation from other pure wildcats and a lonely death or hybridisation (with the next generation subsumed into the feral cat population - within a short time we would never know).

And migration/wandering would be two way. The population of feral cats has surely pushed north as the number of domestic and feral animals has grown in numbers. Nowadays I don’t think a wildcat would not have to wonder far to encroach on the territories of a domestic or feral cats.

You say that Wildcats in Europe kill feral cats, but I think that even if this is the case sometimes in the UK, any feisty Wildcat will be fighting a rearguard action. There are now 11 million domestic cats in the UK, many of which could be a potential source to augment the 1.5 million feral animals.

 

[Trinovid]

Sad as it is to think of species disappearing and others coming to replace them, all the while decimating preexisting numbers, I think it is once again hubris of man to think he can fix anything of the sort. History is all too full of plans to make things better gone awry and I truly believe that the best we can do, is as little harm as possible, which also includes stopping these remedial processes and accepting present realities.

 

[TheBlackGrouse]

The Highlands of Scotland are pretty isolated, with the quite intensely farmed Lowlands largely separating the area from the upland moors of England. It would therefore seem likely that any wanderer would come across increasing human presence and perhaps sub-optimal habitat - in past times perhaps increasing the risk of detection and persecution.

(...)

Thanks for your answer, it sounds very plausible.

As I wrote here earlier, our foresters are happy with the Wild Cats because their territories are large and they chase away or kill other cats. A rough estimation is that one Wild Cats takes the place of 25 feral, escaped or domestic cats (that are responsible for 20 to 200 million bird kills every year).

Our Wild Cats are slowly expanding and, reading about the situation in the UK, I'm really surprised that there is almost no interbreeding here. We have about 1 - 1.5 million other cats roaming in our natarual areas.

From a genetic point of view, this might be a reason to bring Wild Cats from the main land to Scotland. Because they seem to behave differently to other cats. On the other hand, the species are separated for thousands of years, the Higland Cats are adapted to the harsh conditions there, while our Wild Cats are used to a country that gets warmer and warmer, where snow has become rare.

 

[Mysticete]

There are aspects of the biology of domestic cats that make them very different from true wildcats. One, is there tolerance for humans, which allow them to easily rely on human handouts. The other is the fact they can breed all year round. They are also far more tolerant of sharing there territories with other feral/domestic cats. Those traits come together to allow feral cats to exist at population densities far above what a true wild cat would favor, which can be detrimental to wildlife for obvious reasons.

 

[Thotmosis]

What about the wild cats of Kilkenny, any left?