Scottish Wildcats 5

Pound for pound the Scottish wildcat is one of the most impressive predators in the world; intelligent, fearless, resourceful, patient, agile and powerful they are genuine super-predators and until as recently as the 1950s were believed to be man killers. <br /> <br /> Surviving human persecution for five hundred more years than the British wolf and over a thousand more years than the British lynx or bear, they inspired and terrified the same Highland clans that defied the Roman and English empires. Today the wildcat continues to receive the respect of Highland farmers and gamekeepers, many of them happy to recount the tale of the wildcat mother killing herself to kill a golden eagle attacking her kittens, or stories from childhood of wildcats evading teams of watching keepers to snatch lambs from their father's fields. <br /> <br /> Although wildcats look similar to domestic cats, these are no feral or farm cats run wild; they're Britain's only remaining large wild predator and have walked this land for millions of years before mankind arrived or domestic cats evolved. Every inch a cat in every sense of the word the Scottish wildcat epitomises the independent, mysterious and wild spirit of the Highlands like no other creature. <br /> <br /> Text courtesy of the Scottish Wildcat Association