A DECADE-long conservation project which has focussed on creating safe havens for Scottish wildcats in the Highlands has unveiled the first ever video evidence of a pure wildcat, filmed in Aberdeenshire.

Wildcat Haven has never given up the quest for a pure breed wildcat, one of the world’s rarest animals, despite that fact that most experts considered it lost to the process of hybridisation - cross-mating with domestic cats.

Projects run by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) have failed to find any cat not showing signs of hybridisation, leading to their assertion that the best hope lay in the also-hybridised captive population.

Wildcat Haven had identified numerous potential wildcats in the West Highlands, which never came quite close enough to the camera for full verification.

In response to sighting from the east Highlands, the group appointed Kevin Bell, a local project manager, to start a targeted survey that quickly confirmed a small population of very high purity wildcats.

The animal caught on video is the first living wildcat to score full marks on a 21-point scale used to identify wildcat purity and its exceptional quality has been verified by an independent expert at the National Museums of Scotland.

“We’ve been closely monitoring key sites in Aberdeenshire over the last couple of years having picked up good accounts of an isolated population in the area,” said Wildcat Haven’s chief scientific adviser Dr Paul O’Donoghue.

“SNH have already spent a huge sum of money carrying out survey work in the region turning up little of real value, but Kev went out with just three camera traps and immediately started returning images of these stunning cats.

“It feels a bit like looking at a unicorn,” O'Donoghue comments on the video. “This animal is so often described as extinct, bordering on mythical, but we have always been confident they're still out there, and here's the evidence coming from quite an unexpected place.”

He adds: “No-one has ever seen a wildcat this good in the wild before, it shows no signs of hybridisation and proves that Scotland’s iconic wildcat, an incredible survivor, is still out there despite all odds.

“We must protect it from the threat of hybridisation, but also from the government action plan; licensed to capture wildcats for a captive breeding program which has a dismal track record of producing hybridised and neutered display animals.’’ Wildcat Haven is currently involved in the establishment and monitoring of a domestic cat neutering programme in Aberdeenshire to protect the small population in-situ.

Bell, who will be spearheading these efforts, said: “These ghost-cats deserve to live in the wild, not in a cage for people to gawp at. They're remote, they've stayed hidden and survived, and we'll do everything we can to ensure it stays that way.

“Along with the wildcats in the West Highlands havens, these are the best chance the wildcat has, out in the wild where they belong.’’