Just some of the words commonly used by conservationists to describe these felines.
In the wake of two of the world’s rarest kittens being rescued from beside a busy road, you might wonder, just why is it such a big deal?
The Scottish wildcat is the rarest species of cat on Earth, with only 35 pure individuals believed to still exist. As a result, these kittens represent 6% of all the Scottish wildcats in existence.
They are the largest wild predator exclusive to Britain, with an impressive arsenal - eighteen razor sharp retractable claws for gripping prey and climbing great heights; thick thigh muscles for sprinting at over 30 miles per hour; the ability to fall more than 50 feet and land on large paws, walking away unscathed.
These felines have walked the land for millions of years, as the European wildcats we know today, before mankind arrived or domestic cats existed. Indeed, the Scottish subspecies of cat we know today have roamed since The Stone Age. They had become what scientists term a ‘superpredator’ - they grew large, as big as four feet in some specimens. A true apex predator, at the top of the food chain, perfectly designed for survival and dominance.
They are of particular importance for controlling population numbers of invasive prey species, particularly rabbits, of which there has been a largely unchecked population explosion ever since their introduction. Thus, the wildcats fill a critical role in the balance of the food chain, and their large decrease in numbers - and that of the rabbits' other natural predators - has tipped the scales considerably, resulting in further ecological destruction .
They faced persecution at the hands of humans for 500 years before efforts were made to protect them; as late as the 1950s, they were believed to be man-eaters; a laughable myth when you consider the size, being roughly 50% larger than their domestic cousins but in no way capable of posing threat to human life. They were, however, a real threat to the humans’ livelihoods, and were executed for preying on game and livestock. They quickly became extinct in all of Britain save for the very edges of Scotland, in territories less suitable for farming and thus safer for the cats to hide away. Destruction of native habitats only escalated the problem, and their diminished range grew ever smaller. Now, the biggest threat to their survival is interbreeding with domesticated cats, particularly now that humans are encroaching ever further into their homelands. Efforts have been made to remedy the situation through means of pest control, but attempts by untrained individuals may cause accidental harm to a real wildcat if they are unable to tell the difference, especially since many hybrids share similar traits.
It is now feared that feral hybrids outnumber pure wildcats by 3000:1.
Hybrid cats remain feral and thus further contribute to the threat - it is said that all cats born with wildcat blood are unable to be tamed, even when captive born.
So the rescue of these two little kittens is nothing short of a miracle. We can only hope that more exist, and that it is not too late to stop their extinction.
In other news, two more kittens were born at Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo, which experts hope may help provide a lifeline for the iconic species.The kittens will join a conservation breeding programme which it is hoped will save the species from extinction in the wild through future reintroductions
