NEWSLINK: Wild lynx to be brought back to British countryside

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/10080527/Wild-lynx-to-be-brought-back-to-British-countryside.html

NEWSLINK: Mystery cat of Inverclyde

The Feral Beast: Portrait of the artist as an apprentice
The Independent
Any sightings of a headless big cat in the Inverclyde area should be reported to Cappielow Park post-haste! Boden well. Residents of the Shetland Islands are used to storms, but did the council have to create one of its own? Some people are asking why ...

SIGHTING: West Lothian woman claims panther is to blame for injuring her horses

FARM owner Helen Smith described the creature as a 'muscle machine' as she revealed it had taken gouges out of her animals.

For More Information

SIGHTING: West Lothian, Scotland

West Lothian woman claims panther is to blame for injuring her horses
Scottish Daily Record
Owner Helen Smith said her animals were injured after she spotted a big cat on the prowl at her farm. She says the beast is bigger than her dogs – huge bullmastiff-Rhodesian ridgeback crosses. Helen, 55, said: “This was a muscle machine with claws and ...

NEWSLINK: More doom and gloom for the wildcat

Scottish Wildcat 'Could Be Made Extinct At Any Moment'
Huffington Post UK
There could be as few as 35 purebreds left in the wild, according to information gathered by the Scottish Wildcat Association (SWA). Numbers of the feline known as the 'Highland Tiger' have dwindled in as the creatures cross-breed with domestic or ...

I have a sneaking suspicion that this has probably been true for decades. The late Jan Williams once told me that the problem with the Scottish Wildcat was that no-one actually knew what it was! The type specimen from 1902 apparently turned out to be a feral moggie. However, I have not been able to verify this. If anyone can give me a citation apart from "Jan Williams told me this on the telephone twenty years ago" I would be very grateful..

CONSERVATION: Scottish wildcat faces extinction within months

Days before Scottish Natural Heritage begin formulating their action plan for the Scottish wildcat, conservationists warn that numbers may have slumped to 35 individuals and that significant policy change is essential.

September 2012. Critical analysis of efforts to identify Scottish wildcat populations over the last five years has concluded that the population numbers just 35 individuals.
2000 records assessed.

A team put together by the Scottish Wildcat Association has appraised over 2000 records including camera trap sightings, eye witness reports and roadkills collected independently by organisations such as the SWA, Cairngorms Wildcat Project and Oxford University.

For more information

SIGHTING: Mystery of capital’s big cat sighting 10/09/2012

POLICE teams searching for a vulnerable mum were stunned when they spotted a BIG CAT.

 

The unit had been drafted in by cops in Edinburgh after a two-day-old baby was found abandoned in the street.

Officers were desperate to find the tot’s mother, and Sgt Nicholas Whyte’s helicopter team was asked to check out Arthur’s Seat with infra-red camera gear.

He said: “We started our search and found a large heat source lying on the ground.
“I directed a police woman towards it, and as I was doing this the heat source got up and it was a large cat.
“It was not your standard domestic cat or small moggy but more like a puma.
“We told the officer to stay exactly where she was and the cat bounded off, never to be seen again. It was one of the most astonishing things I have ever seen on our cameras.”

To find out more