Last June 19 wildcats were released into the Cairngorms National Park.
Two wildcats released into a national park last year have given birth, marking a “major milestone” for wildcat recovery in Scotland, conservation experts have said.
The project is working to restore Scotland’s critically endangered wildcat population by breeding and releasing them into the wild and mitigating threats to the species.Dr Keri Langridge, Saving Wildcats field manager, said: “We suspected that some of the females had given birth when their movement and activity changed very suddenly but didn’t know for sure until footage of the kittens was captured on our cameras.
“We didn’t dare to dream that we would have wildcat kittens in the first year of releases, and seeing those kittens on the video was the most exciting moment of the project so far.” Two primary threats to wildcats, dubbed the Highland tiger, are interbreeding with domestic cats and predator control activities.
“These births demonstrate that the process of breeding wildcats for release into the wild is working, as those released animals have learned to hunt and survive – and now reproduce in their first breeding season, a clear indication that they are doing well.
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