Fleeting Shadows of the Night

Laurie Corbett, as a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen 1975-79, conducted research on wildcats (Felis silvestris grampia) and feral cats (Felis catus) in Aberdeenshire, the Outer Hebrides and the Monach Isles. This study, based on radio-tagged individuals and direct observations of tagged and untagged cats, indicated that 'pure' wildcats were numerous and that their increase in population numbers at that time was likely due to the increase in forest habitat, a relaxation of pressure from game-keepers, and the advent of myxomatosis that enabled rabbits to be more easily caught. He also indicated that hybridisation with domestic cats may be a threat to the future survival of wildcats as a distinct species, as concluded by recent reviews from 2021-2014 by eminent authorities. This illustrated narrative presents a summary of his cat research in the 1970s and the reviews, some 40 years later, on the dismal future of the 'critically endangered' wildcat in Scotland.