By Hector MackenziePublished: 24 April, 2009
A NEW charity believes the Scottish wildcat could face extinction within five years unless action is taken to protect the ultra-rare creature's dwindling numbers.
Scientists probing the issue have estimated that as few as 400 pure wildcats remain in the Highlands with little being done to try and reverse the decline.
Their plight was thrust into the spotlight in Ross-shire at the end of December last year when the Journal reported claims of a "frenzied" attack by a feline creature on a retired art teacher living near Alness.
Police at the time insisted they regarded Pat Macleod (73) — who required hospital treatment for cuts following an evening incident near her home — as a credible witness and consulted experts in the field to try and get to the bottom of the mystery. One theory was that Ms Macleod had by chance disturbed a "hybrid" wildcat.
In the wake of a storm of national media interest in the story that followed, Steve Piper, the leading light behind the new Scottish Wildcat Association (SWA), appealed for a calm, logical approach to the issue and hit out at some of the more lurid headlines, pointing out that wildcats are typical very cautious creatures who try to avoid contact with humans.
Speaking this week, Mr Piper confirmed the SWA has now been officially registered as a charity.
He says that wildcats have been resident in Britain for at least two million years and shared space with everything from woolly mammoths to cave lions, surviving ice ages.
More recently they have fallen foul of human persecution, urban development and, increasingly, hybridisation with domestic feral cats, bringing numbers crashing down, he warned.
Added Mr Piper, "In 2004 scientists concluded that around 400 pure wildcats remained in the Highlands and developed an action plan to save them. Five years down the line no apparent progress has been made and numbers seem to be falling even lower, whilst the Government body responsible for action, Scottish Natural Heritage, seem to be paralysed by inertia and keen to blame others for it.
"There has been a lot of talk and half-hearted gestures like the recent wildcat population survey — it was so poorly funded the ecologists were left with nothing to work with, it was impossible to achieve the detail needed and everyone knew it.
"Shooting estates do cause wildcats a lot of problems but it definitely wasn't their idea to fund a survey of one of the world's rarest and most elusive creatures with pocket change —that was all SNH."
He said the charity "plans to get things moving in the right direction and have already started to build an excited buzz amongst conservationists and the public".
Membership of the Association is open to individuals and commercial sponsors alike.
The charity is run voluntarily and keeps overheads to a minimum so that maximum funds, generated through membership and donations, go on front line projects such as the official captive breeding-for-release program and a range of awareness and educational campaigns.
One such campaign is in partnership with charities including Advocates for Animals, Scottish Badgers and the International Otter Survival Fund to ban snares in Scotland. This has attracted public support but strong opposition from many in the rural community who argue that snares are a cheap and essential pest control device .
Said Piper, "We need people like farmers and shooting estates to work with us saving the wildcat and we absolutely understand their financial and practical concerns regarding banning snares.
"That said, snares are brutal and indiscriminate devices that kill many non-target species including wildcats and there are alternatives such as wildcats themselves; their staple food is rabbit, they defend their territory against foxes and feral cats and they don't need a licence to kill hares.
"Wildcats also bring financial advantages as subsidy for any loss of grouse or rabbit damage with tourists willing to pay hundreds to sit in a hide just to catch a glimpse of this beautiful creature; that doesn't have to mean coachloads of people trampling around the Highlands, it can be just a couple of wildlife watchers staying at the local B&B.
"That's good economics for local communities and a much better option than dealing with a feral cat colony which is the inevitable alternative — surely it's worth trying things differently to save an animal absolutely unique to Scotland and so intimately entwined with its history and culture."
More information on the charity is available through its website, www.scottishwildcats.co.uk
* Alness-based Inspector Matthew Reiss, briefly addressing the issue of police involvement in wildlife issues, told last week's Highland Council Black Isle ward forum that a week after last year's cat attack reports near Alness, a dead animal had been retrieved from a ditch nearby. Evanton-based wildlife liaison officer PC George Ewing said later the animal had been found in a wooded area near Milnafua by local children. It is believed the creature may have been struck by a vehicle.
editor@rsjournal.co.uk
http://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/6093
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