Scottish wildcats to be released
There are wildcats already living in the Cairngorms, but they are on the brink of extinction.

Disease, interbreeding with domesticated cats, being hunted and habitation loss are believed to be the main contributing factors for the reduced numbers.

Saving wildcats project and Royal Zoological Society of Scotland have received the necessary licences to release wildcats back into the wild.

They hope to release 20 wildcats a year into a 232 sq mile conservation area within the Cairngorms.
Once released, the project will work with local communities, farmers and land owners to ensure the wildcats are given the best chance to survive.
Experts are hoping to have a wildcat breeding program at a Highland Wildlife Park.

They will be bred and contained in special pre release enclosures. Once released they will be monitored using GPS collars as a way to study and record their success in releasing the wildcats back into the wild.

The Scottish wildcat has been present in Britain since the early Holocene, around 12,000 years ago, when the British Isles were connected by land to Europe. Wildcats were once common throughout all of Great Britain. By the 16th century they had become extinct in southern England.

In the mid-19th century, they had declined in numbers in Wales and Northumberland. Today they only exist in specific areas of Scotland.