Has anyone actually seen a proper wildcat in Britain? Not a big cat, but the actual Scottish wildcat

Right, so I've been reading into this for years and I'm genuinely puzzled. Everyone bangs on about the ABCs (Alien Big Cats) on Bodmin and Exmoor, fair enough, but what about the actual native wildcats? The Scottish Highlands had proper populations until hunting wiped them out. My question: has anyone on here actually encountered one, or are they just extinct and we're all chasing shadows?

I found a brilliant article from 1987 in some obscure Highland newsletter claiming sightings near Glen Affric, but no photos, naturally. Just wondering if anyone's got any decent evidence or if this is a complete dead end. The Cairngorms Trust reckon there's maybe a few hundred left if we're lucky.

Cheers,
HighlandWanderer

Mate, I grew up near Braemar and my old man swore blind he saw one in the 90s. Said it was nothing like a tabby cat, proper stocky thing with tufted ears. But here's the thing - by the time he got his camera out, it'd buggered off into the heather. Classic paranormal scenario really, innit? No proof, just a story down the pub.

Has anyone actually seen a proper wildcat in Britain?

The problem is distinguishing them from feral domestics that have gone a bit wild. Hybridisation is rife up there. I did a three-week expedition in the Cairngorms in 2019 with motion-triggered cameras and caught exactly zero wildcats, but plenty of red squirrels and one very grumpy badger. Not exactly X-Files material.

The wildcats are real but essentially functionally extinct in the wild. What you're probably encountering in witness reports is misidentification or hybrid animals. The genetics are completely muddled at this point. Sorry to be a downer, but that's what the research says. If you want a proper mystery cryptid, look at the alleged surviving European lynx in remote areas - now that's interesting.