The Scottish Wildcat (felis sylvestris grampia)

A Short History Of The Scottish Wildcat

9000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age glaciation, the English Channel formed and isolated a group of European wildcats in the British Isles. Over time they evolved unique characteristics in response to the particular habitats and species resident here growing bigger and more heavily camoflaged. As human led deforestation changed the face of Britain and the species was hunted close to extinction across England, Wales and most of Scotland it evolved beyond it's forest led behaviour to be able to hunt over the full range of habitats available to it, and developed a greater mistrust of mankind than any other animal. Today, the small number of wildcats that survived persecution are now heavily outnumbered by human introduced feral domestic cats. The two species are closely related and readily mate, causing the wildcat genes to slowly water down and disappear into the huge domestic genepool. Recent conservation efforts have been led by scientists, naturalists and the interested public, with support from government and statutory agencies proving slow and, to date, ineffective.

The Rise Of The Cat To The"Crest" (2,000 years ago)
Excerpt taken from: The Scottish Wildcat Asociation
Under the Romans cities grew larger, people more numerous, and hunting became a sport as well as a necessity. The domestic cat was introduced in large numbers whilst wild carnivores like the British lynx were pushed to the abyss of extinction and fell over not long after the Romans left. Wildcats were also prized for their wonderful fur though somehow evaded extinction, learning quickly never to trust mankind.

Scotland at the time was ruled by the Picts, an artistic but fearsome race that scared the Romans so much they constructed the 80 mile long Hadrian's wall to keep them out of the Empire. Pictish society operated around the clan system, with many clans adopting animals to represent themselves and in the process retaining a respect for nature you can still feel in the Highlands today. An area in Scotland called Caithness (Caith meaning cat) was home to a "cat clan" said to worship the wildcat for it's fierce spirit. Eventually they became a group of clans (the Clan Chattan) who all took the wildcat as their leader's coat of arms and still exist today as clans like Macpherson, Mackintosh, Macbean and of course the widely famous Clan MacGillivray.