PREVIEW

Wildcats have been successfully released into the Cairngorms National Park this year in another important step towards saving the species in Scotland.

This is the third year in a row that wildcats have been released into the Highlands after being declared functionally extinct in Britain in 2019. This year, 18 animals were released by the Saving Wildcats partnership, led by wildlife conservation charity the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), bringing the total up to 46 wildcats.

In a huge step forward for restoring the species, some of the now wild-living females have successfully produced litters of kittens in the spring and summer of 2024 and 2025.

Dr Helen Senn, Saving Wildcats project lead at RZSS, said: “Just a few years ago, the species was teetering on the edge of extinction in Scotland. Now we’re watching them not only survive but start to raise their own kittens in the wild. That gives us real hope for the future.

“However, to give wildcats a fighting chance, we must keep breeding and releasing more animals into the wild and continue to look after the population already present in the landscape until it can successfully survive on its own. Small, recently reintroduced populations are highly vulnerable to threats like road mortality, interbreeding with feral domestic cats, fire and extreme weather events.”

Additional funding is required as the project continues, particularly as, after Brexit, Saving Wildcats is no longer eligible to benefit from the EU LIFE Programme, which has significantly contributed to the project so far.

Dr Senn added: “It takes huge amounts of time, expertise and resources to bring a species back from the brink, and we can’t do it alone. We are committed to looking after this newly established population and maintaining the connections with the local community that we have built up during the project. We would love to hear from anyone keen to support wildcat restoration.”