European Wildcat

European Wildcat: Species Facts

Range & Habitat

The European wildcat has a severely fragmented range in Europe; according to a 2020 study in PLOS ONE, the available distribution maps show its main patches in the Iberian Peninsula, France, Germany and the eastern countries of Europe. In central Europe it is associated with forests, and in the Mediterranean landscapes of the Iberian Peninsula with scrublands.^[3]

A 2018 study radio-tracked wildcats in five areas of the Iberian Peninsula, including Cabañeros National Park in central Spain. Both sexes set up their home ranges close to broadleaf forests and away from humanised areas, and within them used areas dominated by scrubland or broadleaf forest; females chose mid-elevation ground with some topographic complexity, while males used lowland areas.^[4]

Territory size varies widely. In the same 2018 study, home ranges went from 1.22 to 59.78 km², with a median of 13.68 km², and males tended to have larger home ranges than females (medians of 14.68 km² and 4.59 km²). Females were more strongly tied to habitat features, which the authors read as a tendency to choose better-quality habitat with better access to shelter and food.^[4]

In the Iberian Peninsula the rabbit is a key prey for the wildcat, and in southern Spain, where rabbits are scarce, rodents become a key prey group, according to the 2020 study.^[3]

Little is known about how many wildcats there are. The 2020 study says the species' status had been established subjectively, from non-systematic approaches and opportunistic records, and that little was known about its demographic situation. Its camera-trap survey of Andalusia, carried out between 2011 and 2015 and described as the first large-scale estimate for any European wildcat population, found a smaller and more fragmented range than previously assumed and a very low average density of 0.069 wildcats per km². The authors put the Andalusian population at fewer than 1,000 individuals and consider a similar scenario highly likely for the rest of Spain.^[3]

Threats

Hybridisation with domestic cats. Domestic cats were derived from the Near Eastern wildcat (Felis lybica) and spread with people into Europe. A 2023 genomic study in Current Biology found that, despite living alongside each other for at least 2,000 years on the European mainland and in Britain, the two stayed largely reproductively isolated, probably because of behavioural and ecological differences, and that this isolation is now being eroded in parts of the wildcat's range as a result of human activities.^[6]

A 2020 range-wide genetic study of 926 samples from 13 European countries found that the share of hybrids varied considerably between populations, with low to moderate levels in most of Europe. Its authors read the overall prevalence of first-generation hybrids, below 1 %, as a low risk to the wildcat's long-term genetic integrity in most of Europe, but say regionally higher introgression confirms that hybridisation poses a potential threat.^[5]

In Andalusia, the 2020 camera-trap survey found very few domestic cats in the sampled areas and only four putative hybrids, three of them in Doñana, and its authors see support for the idea that ecological barriers may be limiting the flow of domestic-cat genes into Mediterranean mountain ranges; elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula, near farms and villages, a relevant presence of domestic cats has been detected. The 2018 Iberian study hypothesises that differences in how males and females use habitat may help wildcats keep their genetic integrity.^[3][4]

Persecution and loss of prey. Most of the Andalusian wildcat range lies in hunting estates, and the 2020 study says the species suffers severely from the illegal and legal control of carnivores to protect small game, while big-game hunting can reduce its prey indirectly. According to the 2018 study, a new variant of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (GI.2) is reducing the availability of the wildcat's main prey in Mediterranean ecosystems.^[3][4]

Fragmentation and declines. In Andalusia, crops were the main factor fragmenting the predicted range; the Sierras Béticas population is more restricted and fragmented and probably unconnected to the large population of Sierra Morena, and the protected-area network seems insufficient to cover a significant part of the population (2020 study). Declines have been reported in several wildcat populations in Iberia (2018 study).^[3][4]

What happened in Scotland. The wildcat population in Scotland is considered critically endangered as a result of hybridisation with introduced domestic cats. A 2023 genomic study found that, although domestic cats have been in Britain for over 2,000 years, hybridisation there began only within the last 70 years; its authors hypothesise that domestic genes may protect wildcats against diseases brought by domestic cats, and that this contributes to genetic swamping. In the 2020 range-wide study, all samples from Scotland were identified as second-generation hybrids or backcrosses.^[5][7]

Conservation Status & Work

Felis silvestris: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (global assessment of the species, published in 2025).^[9]

In Spain the wildcat (gato montés) is included in the Listado de Especies Silvestres en Régimen de Protección Especial under Real Decreto 139/2011, without a category in the Catálogo Español de Especies Amenazadas: it is protected, but not listed as threatened. The 2020 Andalusian study notes that it is not in any threatened category in Andalusia or in the rest of Spain. In Europe it is strictly protected under the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive.^[1][3]

In the Comunidad de Madrid, where Jara's story is set, the wildcat is listed as «De interés especial» (of special interest) in the regional Catálogo Regional de Especies Amenazadas de Fauna y Flora Silvestres.^[2]

Earlier assessments, for the record: the 2018 Iberian study cites the wildcat as «Near Threatened» in Spain (in the 2007 Atlas and Red Book of Spain's terrestrial mammals) and «Vulnerable» in Portugal (in the 2005 Red Book of Portugal's vertebrates), assessments prompted by reported declines.^[4]

For Andalusia, the 2020 study recommends improving monitoring in hunting estates, at least in the main populations; studying and improving connectivity between Sierra Morena and the Sierras Béticas; and reviewing the protection laws. It also proposes its camera-trap method for long-term monitoring programmes.^[3]

In Scotland, Saving Wildcats, a project led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland with partners including NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland, the Cairngorms National Park Authority and the Junta de Andalucía's regional environment ministry, and supported by the EU LIFE programme, says habitat loss, persecution and, more recently, interbreeding with domestic cats have left the population no longer viable. The project breeds wildcats for release and has begun releasing them into the Cairngorms National Park, while working against hybridisation and disease transfer from domestic cats.^[8]