SECURING A FUTURE FOR THE SCOTTISH WILDCAT
WWW.SAVINGWILDCATS.ORG.UK
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TENT is an active supporter of Saving Wildcats, an ambitious recovery project led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), in collaboration with national and international partners. Through a captive breeding programme, the work aims to establish a network of free-living, genetically resilient wild populations of cats across Scotland. In 2023, the first wildcats from the programme were released into the Cairngorms Connect landscape, with ongoing releases planned into the future.
The UK’s last remaining felid, the Scottish Wildcat, is clinging by a claw to the brink of extinction. The species was once common across Britain, but through persecution, habitat loss, disease and hybridisation with domestic cats, their numbers have plummeted – Scottish wildcats have been declared ‘functionally extinct’ in the wild, meaning their population is too low and too dispersed for a viable future.
Monitoring the behaviour and movement of released cats is critical for the broader recovery programme.
Kincraig Breeding and Release Facility – where cats are reared for the wild.
A Scottish wildcat kitten, bred at Alladale Wilderness Reserve.
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