And now Mull has a wildcat

A holiday maker on Argyll’s  Isle of Mull has photographed a wildcat he spotted on the island last week.

Peter Harris saw the animal crouching in the undergrowth near the Glengorm Estate in the north of Mull. He identified it quickly as a wildcat from the thick black stripe on its back and its bushy tail – he had previously seen wildcats in captivity in a wildlife park at Kingussie.

Mr Harris stopped his car and got out to have a look. The animal was cleaning itself on the far side of a ditch and, although it kept a sharp eye on Mr Harris’s movements, completed its routine before stalking off ten minutes later.

Looking at Mr Harris’s photographs, the Scottish Wildcat Association’s Steve Piper says that it looks like a hybrid and that it may have reached the island either by swimming the mile-wide sound over to Mull (wildcats are not afraid of water) or stowing away on a ferry.

Steve Piper is now planning to take a team to Mull to try to see the animal for themselves.