The Scottish wildcat is a European wildcat population in Scotland. It is estimated to comprise between 1,000 and 4,000 individuals, of which about 400 cats are thought to meet the morphological and genetic criteria of a wildcat.
The Scottish wildcat was once widely distributed across Great Britain, but the population has declined drastically since the turn of the 20th century due to habitat loss and persecution. It is now limited to northern and ...
eastern Scotland.
It is listed as Critically Endangered in the United Kingdom, and is primarily threatened by hybridization with domestic cats . Camera-trapping surveys carried out in the Scottish Highlands between 2010 and 2013 revealed that wildcats live foremost in mixed woodland, whereas feral and domestic cats were photographed mostly in grasslands.
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