Scottish Wild Cat/Wildcat Felis silvestris (silvestris/grampia)

The Scottish Wild Cat or Wildcat looks similar to a domestic tabby. It used to range much of the UK but is now limited to the Highlands of Scotland.

It has a tabby grey coat and a thicker tail than domestic cats, with black bands and a black tip.

It is endangered from interbreeding with feral dommestic cats, diluting its species line. Some say there are about 400 individuals left in the wild in Scotland but experts claim that about 300 of those are hybrids with domestic stock and only some 100 remain pure.

It is mainly solitary and mainly nocturnal. Prey is mainly rabbits, hares and rodents.

The European Wildcat, Felis silvestris, ranges across some of continental Europe, the Caucasus, Africa and the Middle East. Some include the Scottish population in the European nominal subspecies and some give it its own subspecies of F. s. grampia.