Saving Wildcats publish annual round-up

The Saving Wildcats conservation project, led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), has published its annual roundup. The report, called the Wildcat wrap-up, covers June 2024 to June 2025 - a year marked by landmark successes.

Highlights include the release of 28 wildcats into the wild and the birth of 24 kittens to released females. Both survival and breeding rates have exceeded expectations. The report also details the challenges of monitoring the population, including the use of camera traps, which captured over 2.5 million images.

At RZSS’s Highland Wildlife Park, the Saving Wildcats team continues its dedicated work caring for wildcats at the breeding-for-release centre. The team’s efforts range from day-to-day husbandry to DNA analysis, which helps assess hybridisation risks.

The report also reflects on the importance of collaboration, highlighting contributions from other organisations such as Cats Protection and Strathspey Vets in tackling threats posed by disease and interbreeding with domestic cats. In addition, it showcases scientific research papers that have been informed by the project’s findings.

The document is both an inspiring account of conservation in action and a testament to the power of cross-sector collaboration in protecting Scotland’s nature.