First Wildcats Arrive at Saving Wildcats Breeding Center

Posted By : The Animal Facts Editorial Team

Date: March 16, 2021 9:50 pm

Nell the Scottish wildcat when she was a kitten at the Alladale Wilderness Reserve

Photo Credit: Alladale Wilderness Reserve

The first Scottish wildcat has arrived at the Saving Wildcats conservation breeding for release center at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) Highland Wildlife Park.

Nell a young female came to the center from Alladale Wilderness Reserve earlier this month and has settled in well to her new off-show enclosure. This center provides breeding space, veterinary care, remote monitoring and training to prepare the cats for life in the wild.

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It is hoped that Nell will be joined by a number of additional cats in the coming weeks and that the kittens these cats produce will be able to be returned to the wild. This program is hoped to restore the critically endangered species in Scotland.

The Saving wildcats project is led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland in collaboration with NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland, the Cairngorms National Park Authority, Norden’s Ark and Junta de Andalucía.

Nell is released in to her new enclosure at the Saving Wildcats conservation breeding for release center

Photo Credit: Saving Wildcats

David Barclay, Saving Wildcats ex-situ conservation manager, said, “Saving Wildcats is an incredibly exciting partnership bringing together the necessary resources and expertise to save Scotland’s iconic wildcat.”

“Nell is the first cat to be introduced into our breeding for release centre at Highland Wildlife Park and she has settled well into her new surroundings.”

“A further 15 cats will be arriving at the centre in the coming weeks, giving us a healthy, genetically diverse population to breed from. Offspring will then be transferred to larger pre-release enclosures as they mature where they will undergo a dedicated training programme to prepare them for life in the wild. We hope the first cats will be ready to be introduced into a site in the Scottish Highlands in 2022.”