44+ Wildcat Kittens Born in the Wild Since Cairngorms Releases Began
Scottish wildcats are breeding in the wild again. A conservation project, Saving Wildcats, has released 50 cats into the Cairngorms National Park since summer 2023, and more than 44 kittens have been born in the wild.
David Barclay, Saving Wildcats conservation manager, told STV News that the released cats are not only surviving and hunting, but they are now also reproducing.
The Long Road to Release
Every cat is bred at a conservation breeding centre at Highland Wildlife Park. Getting one ready for release takes around 15 months. The team keeps human contact to a minimum so the cats don’t look to people for food out of habit.
Each released cat wears a GPS collar, so the team can track its movements and behaviour once it is free.
Some of the cats have been seen by the public. Canoeists on the River Spey watched a released wildcat swim across the river. Barclay said it may be the first time this has ever been seen.
Recovery Is Still Fragile
Eleven released wildcats have died in three years, five of them in vehicle collisions. Many lived in the wild for several years and had litters first. The team counts this as a success, because similar projects often lose more animals.
Estelle Morgan, Saving Wildcats team leader, says the species is still far from safe.
The main threat is hybridisation with feral and domestic cats. Wildcats also face disease, road collisions, habitat fragmentation, disturbance and incidental harm from predator control. Much of their habitat overlaps with land people manage, so Saving Wildcats works with farmers, land managers and local communities to help wildcats and people live side by side.
A Wider Return
Wildcats (also occasionally referred to as Highland tigers) once lived across mainland Britain. After centuries of persecution, they were declared functionally extinct in 2019.
Scotland’s new wildcat strategy aims to restore numbers to sustainable levels by 2045 and to find new areas for safe releases. Planned releases include cats bred with Spanish wildcats, the closest living genetic relatives of Scotland’s wildcats, to widen the gene pool.
Rural affairs secretary Gillian Martin said the strategy builds on these early successes to begin to imagine a nationwide recovery. The question now is whether the Cairngorms cats can make that happen.
SOURCE
Wildcat conservationists hail breeding success in Highlands | STV News
With thanks to Saving Wildcats / RZSS for permission to share their footage. Learn more at savingwildcats.org.uk
