NatureScot warned there are likely too few pure-bred Scottish wildcats for the population to be viable.
The latest research is the culmination of the Scottish Wildcat Action project - a collaborative effort led by Scotland's nature agency NatureScot, which ran from 2015 to 2020., the project team has made recommendations on how to try and save the species.
It also ran genetic tests on 529 cat samples, but none scored highly enough to be considered wildcats. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project said it was likely wildcats, wildcat hybrids and domestic cats had mated freely with each other over many generations since the 1960s, creating a situation called a hybrid swarm.
Dr Roo Campbell, NatureScot's mammal adviser said the five-year project was only at the beginning of a journey to restore Scotland's wildcat population.
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