Hey guys,
To respond;
Highland Wildlife Park is a great place to see wildcats, they've built in tree walks for the cats who are normally very shy but because the walks are 7-8 feet up they come out very confidently where you can see them. Wildwood is a very nice little park set into a forest, they have a couple of cats there and had a kitten about a year ago as well; Port Lympne (one of the Howlett's parks) also has Scottish wildcat now and are in charge of the captive breeding program so that's also a great place to go and see them in Kent.
Seeing them in the wild is the big challenge, I've been told they're at the top of every British wildlife watcher's "to see" list! The problem is that the more populated and accessible the area, the harder it is to find wildcats; the extra people either scare them off, run them over or bring additional domestic strays that start to breed out the wild blood, so around the north of Glasgow and a lot of the developed Cairngorms (including lovely Glenmore unfortunately) you find mostly hybrid cats living wild or domestic strays that look a bit bigger than normal.
So, if you want a chance to see a pure wildcat you need to go off the beaten track as well as be very patient, places like Caithness in the far north or the remote west coast are good, and surprisingly the area to the south east of Inverness (Forres, Elgin etc) is quite undeveloped farmland with a lot of rabbits, decent cats are often sighted there and it's a bit more accessible, I'm also told the Angus Glens can be a good area.
Next you try and fill in some details; speak to locals like farmers, dog walkers, country workers, people out in the wild a bit, ask if they've seen any around regularly, and use a map to see what kind of areas may be good for wildcats nearby; they like a mixture of habitat combining farmland edges (for rabbits), natural forest, water and heathland out of the way of the tour groups or busy forestry tracks (see pic below). Go out and walk around and have a look out for any tracks (just like domestic cat footprints), and you often spot poop unburied and prominently displayed along overgrown pathways or natural mounds; they use it to mark their territory boundary so leave it uncovered and open to smell as much as possible! You'll occasionally come across clear animal pathways; a beaten down track amongst heather or a variety of hoof and paw prints along a particular muddy track, these are excellent places to focus on.
Hopefully you find a promising spot, then like a birdwatcher you set up a little hide or tent and spend some time just sitting there watching the world go by; you may or may not see wildcats but finding these remote areas and sitting around quietly will also give you a great chance of seeing red squirrels, pine martens, mountain hare, deer maybe even eagles or osprey and all of Scotlands other incredible wildlife.
If that fails, you use the same tactics hunters will use; wildcats are primarily nighttime animals so you go out at night around these areas with a flashlight and pan it around the trees looking for eyeshine; pretty much every animal gives off some kind of eyeshine but most people will recognise a cat's distinctive eye shape and head size, the unusual bright light often attracts their attention and because they can't see you behind it they're usually pretty calm about the whole experience, eventually they'll turn to walk off and then you can get a nice look at them by torchlight. If you don't feel too daft you can also make the noise everyone makes to pet cats, when you suck a little squeak of air through your teeth or lips to catch a cats attention; this is actually a sound that rabbits make, so if you are within earshot of a wildcat and make that noise with no other noise, it will probably come to investigate whether you're a potential meal.
Quite a lot of work and you obviously need patience, not only are they masters of not being spotted they actively avoid human presence because they expect us to attack, shoot or send dogs after them, one photographer I know spent almost two weeks on the west coast with about 20 remote cameras and didn't even get a glimpse!
I would recommend trying to spend a couple of days in one of these more remote areas no matter what, camp out if you can, if not just try and spend some time sitting quietly and watching for the movements of wildlife, as long as you pick a quiet and very natural area (like forestry plantations are an awful spot because there's no natural light so nothing lives there, you need genuine ancient Caledonian forest) you have an excellent chance of seeing a wide range of wildlife and bird life, staying on the tourist tracks gets you some beautiful views of Scotland but it's going a little way off that where you find the real wildlife.
I stress always dress properly and bring the right supplies; people die in Scotland every year going out on a sunny morning in a t-shirt and ending up in freezing fog and lost, and we had some hairy moments shooting where I was glad of the mountain of equipment we had to carry around staying out for days or weeks at a time; always pack a jumper, waterproof coat, some kind of food, an Ordnance Survey map, mobile phone and wear decent footwear for trekking!
Steve
