Capturing the Scottish wildcat

The feisty Scottish wildcat has been captured roaming through the snow by a camera trap in the Cairngorms. Elusive and undoubtedly one of the worlds most endangered animals this rugged little cat  is pretty hard to track so it must be a thrill for a wildlife photographer to get a rare glimpse of an animal that may disappear from the wild parts of Scotland in only a few years. Domestic cats are one of the most critical threats to the survival of this small cat that has been the stuff of myth and legend for centuries. The pure gene pool has been diluted by breeding with domestic cats so that there are a large number of cats that look like Scottish wildcats but are in fact hybrids. Huge efforts are being made to save them but the future does look bleak with estimates of perhaps only several hundred still in the wild but it could be a lot less.