by Maria Giulia Checchi –

Did you know that the noble lineage of the European wildcats diverged from that which gave rise to domestic cats about 173,000 years ago? Yet everywhere on-the-line you’ll see article after article that starts by saying that we look like tabby cats. Our domesticated cousins sure wish to look like us, who remain fierce to this day! Or maybe it’s the untrained human eye that struggles to discern our magnificence. Whatever the reason might be, I’m here to dispel the uncertainty and teach all willing readers how a wildcat ought to look and behave.

Let us start by saying that looks do not equal purity. As any Aigas keeper will be able to tell you, the least pure specimen in the field centre’s collection (Coll, 72%) resembles the wildcats of old more than some of the less hybridised examples, myself included (Brora, 85%). Looks alone had long been used to determine purity in studies spanning decades and countries, but the increasing availability of Di-Nn-Er testing, or something similar, is allowing human scientists to form a better picture of our genome.

So: yes, our fur pattern alone might not tell you how pure a wildcat is, but it can tell you we are wildcats nonetheless. Of the many differences between our pelage, I will only speak of the most obvious. First we start with our tails: they are long and bushy, ending in a pitch-black point while up to five black rings adorn their length. Look at your neighbour’s tabby, by contrast: pointy tail, slim and slender, and with far more irregular markings than ours. Then come the stripes. While there is a lot of variation even among wildcats, our stripes tend to go from our spines all the way down the sides in one continuous, pronounced line. These stripes are what earned us the name of Highland tigers; a literal mark of our wildness. And how do those of a tabby cat look? Broken and discontinuous, sometimes resembling dots more than actual stripes. In only one stripe do tabbies surpass us: the dorsal stripe running from our respective shoulder blades and that, in us, stops at the tail attachment, while in domestic cats carries on all the way to the tail tip. Should I go on? Let’s now talk of colours. Black and browns adorn our coat, with white only on the bib and sometimes on the belly, while domestic cats come in any colour. Lastly, our appearance is bulkier, more robust, perfect for a though life, and our eyes the colour of emerald or amber.

And while you might be excused if you mix us up after catching a quick, fleeting glance of a feline shape, get closer and our behaviour will soon undo all doubts. A wildcat will never purr at you, never approach you even after the most perfectly executed ‘pspspspsp’. Instead we will hiss, and spit, and growl, and while in captivity we might accept your food, we will never accept your presence.

Now that you have listened carefully, only one question remains to answer: is this guide perfect? No. I have told you what my wildcat ancestors looked like, but among my lineage hide the deceitful genes of pets brought over to the UK in the last two thousand years. We wildcats resisted their courtship for a long time, like our relatives still do in Europe. As such, hybridisation was very low for most of this coexistence, which some papers from 2023 even suggesting that we only started hybridising on a large scale no more than 60 years ago, when finding a mate among our conspecifics proved too hard. Alas, my pelage is not the perfect coat I have just described, but has faded stripes along the sides, sometimes breaking into smaller sections. Yet a wildcat I am and a wildcat I will always be, as looking at all other visual and behavioural markers will confirm.

Thank you for listening, my dear reader. Now, if you see a cat while walking you can use what you have just learned to identify it. And if it is a wildcat, please let Saving Wildcats know that you spotted one: every sighting can help saving my species.

Profile: Brora is a 9-years-old wildcat part of the Aigas Wildcat Breeding Programme. She fathered Broch in 2021 together with partner Fergus, and is the proud grandmother of Rowan.

Want to help us looking after Rowan and the other resident wildcats? You can adopt a wildcat on the Aigas Field Centre website and make a donation to the Breeding Programme.

words by Maria Giulia Checchi, photos by Jacob New