Expert: Breeding centre a lifeline for wildcat survival

The designer of a specially built centre for breeding wildcats in the Highlands believes it will provide a lifeline for the threatened species, according to a leading figure in the project.

Seven wildcats have so far entered conservation breeding enclosures in a remote part of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore in Inverness-shire.

It is hoped the first kittens will be born next year before being released into the wild in the Highlands in 2023 as part of the Saving Wildcats project.

The Scottish wildcat is the only wild member of the cat family to survive in Britain. Saving Wildcats was devised after an International Union for Conservation of Nature report found there was no longer a viable population in Scotland.

The report concluded that, without releases, the so-called Highland Tiger was “highly likely” to become extinct within just a few years. The £5.5 million, six-year project has created the UK’s first state-of-the-art breeding centre for genetically tested wildcats. Kittens will undergo a programme to ensure they have the skills to survive in the wild once released.

Enclosures have been designed to minimise human contact and provide the breeding cats with a home that retains elements of how the animals would live in the wild.

David Barclay, Saving Wildcats conservation manager and co-ordinator of the UK conservation breeding programme, tells BBC Scotland’s Inside The Zoo: “We’re just doing everything we can to give wildcat survival the best chance.”

Also in tomorrow’s edition of the programme, vet Dr Alice Bacon is seen giving wildcat Rannoch a health check. She says: “We are relying on cats like Rannoch to be the founders of what will hopefully be Scotland’s wild-living wildcat population, so these cats are incredibly valuable, genetically and as individuals.”