Finding something which is out of the ordinary can blow your mind.
This was certainly the case for James Cook who couldn’t believe his eyes during a trip to Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. He claimed to find the “UK’s rarest wild animal” and said no one really believed him – until he showed the footage on TikTok.
Now in a post with his 296,000 followers, the user, who shares under the handle @wildlifewithcookie, revealed the clip of a Scottish Wildcat which he claimed is incredibly rare to find in the UK.
He said: “It took me just under two weeks to find it and I was absolutely buzzing with it, so I posted it to social media and I was met with a load of comments calling it fake or that it was just a normal tabby cat.
“And to be fair when you see it like this, I can’t lie it does look like it should have a collar on and be called Mister Snuggles. However Mister Snuggles, this cat isn’t. This is one of less than 100 Scottish Wildcats we have here in the UK and is probably our rarest animal.”
He said while the video doesn’t do much justice, they’re a lot bigger than your standard house cat. The breed looks more angry and also have a really thick banded tail.
James continued: “But if you didn’t know, Saving Wildcats are actually reintroducing the Scottish Wildcat into the Cairngorms National Park and they’ve been doing that since summer 2023. So far 28 wildcats have been reintroduced and more over the next few years will follow them.
“So I decided to reach out to Saving Wildcats and find out if this was Mister Snuggles and it was, in fact, not. This fella is actually called Crypto who was born Cryptorchid so sadly had to be neutered but he has a stable territory in the Cairngorms and his radio collar was taken off for that reason.”
After the explanation, James concluded: “So now if you’re super lucky like me, you can see a Scottish Wildcat roaming around the Cairngorms National Park, but if you post about them just be warned, you’re gonna get called a liar.” His video racked up nearly 500 likes since shared with numerous comments. One said: “Haters mate.” While another added: “Amazing work.”