Scottish Wildcat Action: Final Summary Report

The wildcat, Felis silvestris, is one of our most iconic species. Elusive and rarely seen, it is threatened by a combination of extremely challenging factors, in particular hybridisation with domestic cats. Its secretive nature has made it a difficult animal to study in the wild, making it harder to design the most efficient and effective conservation measures.

However, despite these challenges, a unique partnership came together to find out more about wildcats in Scotland, and to see if it was still possible to save the species in the wild. This resulted in the multi-partner Scottish Wildcat Action (SWA) project that ran from 2015-2020. New technologies, such as camera trapping, GPS tracking and genetic tools, provided new insights into the ecology and occurrence of wildcats, feral domestic cats, Felis catus, and their hybrids. This helped to give us a far better idea of the perilous status of the species and the approaches that are now necessary if we are to restore the wildcat in Scotland.

This report summarises the work carried out by SWA. The project recognised the importance of publishing and sharing information, and using scientific, evidence-based, approaches to inform decision-making. Those readers who wish to learn more about the SWA work can download the detailed technical reports produced on the various topics covered, for which links are provided below, as well as various scientific papers and other published outputs. All of this work has helped to inform the design of the ‘Saving Wildcats’ project, which represents a new phase of action that aims to release wildcats into a prepared Highland site over the coming years until 2025.