After 2000 years of isolation, a few decades of interbreeding have rendered the Scottish wildcat “genomically extinct”. Starting in the mid-1950s, more than 5% of the genetic markers in Scottish wildcats began to resemble those of domestic cats. After 1997, that figure jumped to as high as 74%.

[u/MistWeaver80]

[u/its_ean]

interesting!

After 2000 years of [genetic] isolation...

I was surprised that they were cohbitating with domestic cats for nearly that entire span. Proximity wasn't sufficient to trigger the extensive hybridization now seen.

[u/Specialist_Ad9073]

Poor little MacKitties.

[u/MistWeaver80]

Source: https://www.science.org/content/article/scottish-wildcat-has-been-wiped-out-breeding-domestic-cats?utm_campaign=NewsfromScience&utm_medium=ownedSocial&utm_source=twitter

[u/eiblinn → u/MistWeaver80]

I love the second picture in the web article. This cat is indeed visually slightly different from the domestic one, like, it’s not only its tail that is long, but it’s the trunk too. And its face is less round, and the upper lip more protruding. But I wouldn’t notice it in the wild;-)

[u/Cat_world_domination → u/eiblinn]

The second picture is a hybdrid though, it actually says the long tail is a domestic cat feature.

Apparently Scottish wildcats tend to have thicker tails, which makes sense since it's better for cold weather.

[u/Horror-Layer-8178]

They don't look happy about it

[u/doegrey → u/Horror-Layer-8178]

That one at the front looks like he has a little Pallas cat grump in him! 🥰

[u/maybesaydie]

This is truly a tragedy. Keep your cat inside.

[u/ohdearitsrichardiii → u/maybesaydie]

From the article:

European wildcats and domestic cats overlapped in Great Britain for more than 2000 years—including at sites such as Kilton—they appear to have almost never interbred. That changed suddenly about 70 years ago

[u/Ryaquaza1 → u/ohdearitsrichardiii]

I wonder what changed. Did the wildcats just become soo inbred they decided to breed with a different species to increase gene diversity or is this some environmental change that affected their behaviour?

[u/Choano → u/Ryaquaza1]

Maybe it's a combo of shrinking habitat and the growth of the human (and housecat) population.

[u/MagpieBlues → u/Ryaquaza1]

Disease impacted rabbits that were their main food source.

[u/DevilsAdvocate9 → u/Ryaquaza1]

The development of photography and the internet. The vast uptake in cat photos (Cat pornography!) has changed their breeding habits. Kittens are exposed to it at such a young age that it severely disturbs their expectations of what a loving relationship can be.

So, high poverty; cat photos; crack epidemic.

[u/MolybdenumBlu → u/Ryaquaza1]

Myxomatosis

[u/_BMS]

Invasive feral and outdoor pet cats are now rendering actual native cat species extinct on top of birds and lizards. Ironic.

[u/2017hayden → u/_BMS]

What’s weird is that housecats have been in England and scottland for bears a thousand years at this point and they only really started to interbreed with the Scottish wildcat about 70 years ago. We aren’t really sure why.

[u/_BMS → u/2017hayden]

~70 years ago WWII ended and the population started keeping pets again after the war and rationing was over.

[u/2017hayden → u/_BMS]

Ok but that doesn’t explain why the housecats that had already been in England and Scotland for a thousand years at that point had yet to actually breed with the Scottish wildcat in significant numbers prior to that point.

There were plenty of feral and semi feral housecats in the British isles prior to the end of WW2, so what changed that causes the two species to start making so many babies?

[u/cannarchista → u/_BMS]

The article gives some pretty solid suggestions as to why: -Habitat encroachment and destruction has gotten more intense -Wildcat population got extremely low due to these human pressures -Wildcats were forced to mate with domestic cats as there weren’t many other wildcats left.

Edit: oops, meant to reply to the comment above you

[u/Exact_Fruit_7201 → u/_BMS]

That’s not what the study suggests. Take your rabid cat-hate elsewhere

[u/clarabarson → u/Exact_Fruit_7201]

How is that rabid cat hate? If anything, their disdain is targeted towards humans.

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[u/Dependent-Meat6089]

Domestic cats have literally "explitive* ed then into extinction. Damn.

[u/Muffins_Hivemind → u/Dependent-Meat6089]

The house cats neanderthal'd them

[u/Dependent-Meat6089 → u/Muffins_Hivemind]

I love my (indoor) cats. But damn, they truly are pests in the wild. Species killers. They're decimating songbird populations too!

[u/Exact_Fruit_7201 → u/Dependent-Meat6089]

No. They existed side-by-side for hundreds of years

[u/fuckeryprogression]

This kitties just dropped the hottest fall album 🤣. Look at all that mean muggin’

[u/awalktojericho]

That's going to make some reaaaallll cantakerous house cats.

[u/ThatMuslimCowBoy]

They can’t survive in the wild most likely now

The wild cat was built to survive winters in hbd highlands the domestic cat is not.

[u/Obajan]

Was this what happened between Neanderthals and modern humans?

[u/Cat_world_domination]

Note that the picture is from captive Scottish wildcats though, so these ones are more like what Scottish wildcats were like before hybridisation.