The sighting of kittens in the Cairngorms has been hailed as a major milestone in the struggle to save Britain’s only native cat species. We find out why the Scottish wildcat reached the brink of extinction and why the Cairngorms is providing a promising home.
The Story so Far: Wildcats on the Brink
The Scottish wildcat Felis silvestris, is the same species as the European wildcat and was once widely distributed across Britain. It is similar in appearance to the domestic tabby, but the species has unique features including a broader head, un broken striped coats, tail banding and bushy tails with a black tip. Scottish wildcats also have longer limbs than domestic cats and strong, muscular hind legs. Over the 20th century populations fell sharply due to habitat loss, persecution and changing land use, leaving just a handful left.
A further threat emerged: breeding with domestic cats. Genetic studies and long-term surveys concluded that many of the `wild’ cats seen in the Scottish Highlands today carry domestic genes, producing a genetic mix rather than a distinct, healthy wildcat population.
By the late 2010s scientific research found that the Scottish wildcat was `functionally extinct’ in the wild and no longer viable without decisive intervention. As a last hope, feasibility studies and conservation efforts under the banner Scottish Wildcat Action and later the Saving Wildcats partnership built a multi-partner, science-led response. This led to captive breeding of genetically vetted wildcats, intensive habitat assessment, community engagement, and, crucially, steps to reduce hybridisation and genetic diversity through local neutering and responsible cat ownership campaigns.
Scotland’s nature agency NatureScot concluded that without reinforcement from captive-bred animals, the Scottish wildcat population had little chance of recovery. In 2023 it granted a licence for a carefully designed trial release into the Cairngorms Connect landscape to offer wildcats a last hope of survival.
The project has been ongoing for the last three years and in 2024 camera traps filmed wildcat kittens born to females that had themselves been released into the area as part of a carefully planned reintroduction.
Why the Cairngorms?
The Cairngorms National Park in north east Scotland offers a combination of features that suit wildcats: lying between 1,000 and 1,200 metres above sea level makes the park home to large areas of mixed woodland, extensive heather moorland. Few humans live there and it boasts a plentiful food supply: primarily rabbits, voles, other small mammals and some bird species.
Wildcats favour habitats comprising veteran trees, dense scrub and edge habitats where they can hunt by night and find den sites in rough grass or bracken. The Cairngorms’ mosaic of woodlands, wetland areas, valleys in the Angus Glens and open ground provides exactly this mix.
Conservation partners also emphasised practical reasons for the site selection. The Cairngorms Connect landscape benefits from strong local partnerships with estate managers, gamekeepers and community groups, and has an extensive existing monitoring infrastructure including camera-trap networks, wildlife staff, and local volunteer networks, all essential for tracking released animals and responding quickly to problems. NatureScot has stressed that the reintroduction was only approved because of that groundwork and the commitment of local people.
How was the Breeding Programme carried out?
Saving Wildcats, a partnership led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland together with NatureScot, Forestry & Land Scotland, Cairngorms National Park Authority and international partners, established a captive-breeding-for-release programme at the Highland Wildlife Park and partner facilities. The release centre programme selects breeding animals to maximise `wild’ genetic integrity and minimise genes from domestic cats. Successful breeding produced groups of kittens for release.
In June 2023 the first group of captive-bred wildcats, around 19 animals, were fitted with GPS-radio collars and released into carefully selected zones. Wildcat reintroductions were staggered, with animals held for acclimatisation in large pre-release enclosures that provide natural cover and hunting opportunities before doors were opened.
Post release centre monitoring combined GPS tracking, an extensive camera-trap network, DNA sampling when feasible, and field teams for day-to-day welfare checks on cats released. The project also ran complementary actions: vaccinating and neutering free-living cats in the release area, encouraging domestic cat neutering and microchipping, and liaising with land managers to reduce persecution risk.
The good news came in 2024 when camera footage and monitoring confirmed that multiple released females had made dens and raised kittens in the wild. As Dr Helen Senn, Saving Wildcats project lead at the Royal Zoological Society stated:
This is a major milestone for wildcat recovery in Scotland. These births demonstrate that the process of breeding wildcats for release into the wild is working… they have learned to hunt and survive – and now reproduce in their first breeding season.
Who is Monitoring the Scottish Wildcats Project?
Many organisations combining national and international expertise are involved: the Saving Wildcats field team tracks GPS-collared individuals daily and reviews camera-trap footage; partner organisations NatureScot, Forestry & Land Scotland and the Cairngorms National Park Authority provide regulatory oversight and habitat management; academic partners contribute genetic testing and ecological analysis, and community volunteers carry out surveys. This mix of statutory, academic and charity partners is what gave the programme the scientific rigour and local acceptance it needed.
Why is Birth in the Wild so Important?
Seeing kittens born in the wild is the central test of any reintroduction; it’s crucial because it shows released animals are not only surviving but reaching sexual maturity and reproducing. Project updates indicate dozens of releases across 2023–2025: the first tranche of around 19 in 2023, further releases in subsequent seasons, and updates suggest roughly 28-35 animals had left the release centre by mid-2025.
NatureScot’s approval document gave a target of approximately 60 animals to be released over a multi-year trial to establish a viable nucleus population. Exact wild population numbers in the Cairngorms remain fluid: monitoring confirms resident released individuals and litters, but the long-term aim is to move from reliance on releases to a self-sustaining wild population of Scottish wildcats in the Scottish Highlands.
What are the Main Threats facing Scottish Wildcats?
Project managers emphasise that releases are only part of the solution. The historic and continuing threat of breeding with domestic cats and hybridisation remains; individuals sampled during genetic work under Scottish Wildcat Action revealed that many wild-living cats are hybrids.
The conservation breeding project therefore combines releases with work to neuter and vaccinate feral cats and pet cats, and public messaging aimed at pet owners. NatureScot has been clear that success depends on removing the threat of hybridisation from breeding with domestic cats and preventing persecution.
Vehicle collisions, disease, habitat loss and local conflicts with game management also present other threats. The project’s monitoring and community engagement aim to identify and reduce such incidents rapidly, and to adapt management where needed.
How Can People Help save these European Wildcats?
Practical steps to help Scotland’s wildcats include neutering and microchipping domestic cats, supporting charities such as the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland to help fund scientific research, Scottish Wildcat Action and Saving Wildcats, reporting sightings to local project teams, and backing habitat protection measures. Scottish wildlife projects are also funded partly by public grants and donations, so financial support matters.
What does the Future Look Like?
There is real optimism that Scottish wildcats will be brought back from the brink of extinction through a programme of breeding and releasing. The footage of wild-born kittens demonstrates that reintroduced animals can learn survival skills and reproduce. If the project continues to release groups of wildcats, sustain rigorous monitoring and keep hybridisation and persecution under control, conservationists hope a small, breeding population of Scotland’s wildcats could become established in the Cairngorms and eastern Scotland over the coming decade.
Even so, success will not mean that the Highland tiger is safe everywhere in Scotland. The process requires ongoing breeding and releasing, habitat management, genetic surveillance and community support: especially responsible cat ownership.
Dr Senn has suggested that a local wild population of 40 animals would represent a meaningful early success, but the endgame is a viable population that no longer needs human intervention.
Conservation efforts to help such critically endangered species are gaining traction; for example, organisations like Rewilding Europe bring national and international expertise to the cause and are working to create and improve suitable habitat for wildcats across the continent.
A Second Chance for the European Wildcat
The sight of wildcat kittens in the Cairngorms is evidence that a carefully designed, science-driven programme, combining conservation breeding in captivity, ethical release, monitoring of wildcat introductions and community partnership, can give this iconic species a second chance. While their future is fragile, for the first time in many years this project brings evidence that true wildcats might once again survive in the wild.
