Catch'Um binoculars logoCatch’Um

Expedition 🇬🇧 United Kingdom

Wildcat in United Kingdom

Britain's last wild cat — a striped Highland ghost so rare it is rarer globally than the tiger.

Wildcat

The species

The Scottish wildcat is Britain's only native cat — thick-set, striped, and fiercely independent, it has prowled Highland forest since the Ice Age. Larger and heavier than a domestic tabby, with a blunt tail banded in black, it is virtually impossible to tell from a feral cat except by experts.

Habitat in United Kingdom

Remote Highland forest and moorland in Scotland once held wildcats across the country. Today they cling on in the Cairngorms, Ardnamurchan, and Morvern — rugged country where forest meets open ground.

Where to spot one

  • Richmond Park

    London

    Ancient parkland where red deer graze at dawn, mallards paddle the ponds, and foxes slip through bracken at the woodland edge.

    View on map →Official site →

  • The New Forest

    Hampshire

    Open heath and oak woodland where foxes, deer, ponies, and woodland birds share a landscape that feels surprisingly wild for southern England.

    View on map →Official site →

  • Hyde Park & Regent's Park

    London

    Urban park lakes for mallards, tree lines full of sparrows, and pigeons along the Serpentine — starter discoveries in the heart of the city.

    View on map →Official site →

  • Cotswolds Farmland

    Gloucestershire & Oxfordshire

    Hedgerows, pasture, and village edges — classic fox country where russet coats show clearly against green fields at last light.

Conservation status

CR — Critically Endangered

Scottish wildcats are Critically Endangered, functionally extinct in the wild as a pure species. The Saving Wildcats breeding programme aims to release cats into the Cairngorms National Park.

Keep exploring

Keep exploring

Free on iOS

Log the Wildcat in United Kingdom

Spot one in the wild — scan it in Catch'Um to log your rare discovery.