- Feb 5, 2002
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A recent generation of captive-bred Scottish Wildcats that were released into Cairngorms National Park are thriving in their natural habitat.
The Saving Wildcats project was in charge of the release that saw 19 wildcats re-enter the wild this summer, tracked via GPS collars.
Solitary hunting cats have high mortality rates in winter months, and it’s not expected that all 19 will survive the winter. Already one has succumbed to an infection.
However, the breeding and reintroduction program, supported by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland, and the Cairngorms National Park Authority, has another thirteen kittens growing up in captivity in conditions that mimic the Cairngorms for future releases.
The iconic species was declared “functionally extinct in the wild” due to habitat loss and interbreeding with domesticated cats, but a herculean effort by various conservation groups has given the cat a rosier outlook in the decades ahead where they hope to reintroduce 60 juveniles between 6 and 8 months old.
Continued below.
The Saving Wildcats project was in charge of the release that saw 19 wildcats re-enter the wild this summer, tracked via GPS collars.
Solitary hunting cats have high mortality rates in winter months, and it’s not expected that all 19 will survive the winter. Already one has succumbed to an infection.
However, the breeding and reintroduction program, supported by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland, and the Cairngorms National Park Authority, has another thirteen kittens growing up in captivity in conditions that mimic the Cairngorms for future releases.
The iconic species was declared “functionally extinct in the wild” due to habitat loss and interbreeding with domesticated cats, but a herculean effort by various conservation groups has given the cat a rosier outlook in the decades ahead where they hope to reintroduce 60 juveniles between 6 and 8 months old.
Continued below.
19 Wildcats Set to Bring Back Scottish Highland Species – They’re Thriving in a Reintroduction Program
The iconic species was declared "functionally extinct in the wild" due to habitat loss and interbreeding with domesticated cats.