And I see you are sidestepping the debate over whether they are a distinct subspecies F.s. grampia or the same as the mainland subspecies F.s. sylvestris by simply listing the species name.
I believe this area is no longer accessible to the public. Were you granted special access?
And I see you are sidestepping the debate over whether they are a distinct subspecies F.s. grampia or the same as the mainland subspecies F.s. sylvestris by simply listing the species name.
No special access. On the days I visited, three wildcats were in the first enclosure you come to when walking down the hill into the base camp area (which I think had previously held snow leopards). However, the main PL thread states that all the wildcats have since been moved off-show.
Beautiful shot! Yes unfortunately Marta, the snow leopard, died so in that enclosure there are now 3 scottish wildcats. There are off-show ones as well, 2 wildcats next to 'Elephant Camp' and another one behind the caracal/lynx complex.
Beautiful shot! Yes unfortunately Marta, the snow leopard, died so in that enclosure there are now 3 scottish wildcats. There are off-show ones as well, 2 wildcats next to 'Elephant Camp' and another one behind the caracal/lynx complex.
Got white around the mouth? Than you're still a hybrid! (Should be a brown mouth- he also has a flash on the chest too).
Apparently the Wildcat Haven project which is being run in conjunction with the Aspinall Foundation, rates all the Scottish wildcats currently in captivity(the known ones that is) as hybrids to some degree. That includes the PL animals, even though they are the SB holders. PL's do apparently include one male who has the highest current rating among the known captive cats regarding purity characteristics though. There is now a more definitive genetic test for pure wildcat, which can be conducted to help them detemine what is what, rather than depending on the pelage criteria of external characteristics, which is what they have done up until now.
I believe some of these PL individuals may still be used in the captive breeding programme though, to try and back breed for the purest cats they can obtain using that method. But they are also still trying to identify how many pure wildcats exist, if any. They hope in time to possibly use individuals from the wild-living population also (if it still exists) if any become available. Also appealing to anyone in the far North of Scotland who might be keeping unknown specimens of possibly pure cats to make themselves known. Afaics(as far as I can see) the exact plans for the captive breeding are still up in the air really.
