Sandra Ortuño, Shepreth Wildlife ParkShepreth’s Scottish wildcats
By Olivia Boult (NLOW Natural Heritage & Communities Officer)
Once widespread throughout mainland Britain, Scottish wildcats are now one of Britain’s rarest and most threatened mammals, confined to the Scottish highlands. Known as the tiger of the Highlands, there are fewer Scottish wildcats than there are tigers in the wild, with some estimates as low as 35 individuals. Saving Wildcats is a project led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) aiming to prevent the extinction of Scottish wildcats in Scotland by releasing captive-bred wildcats back into the wild.
Shepreth Wildlife Park in Cambridgeshire is involved in the project and last month I went along to see the four new wildcat kittens that were born there in April.
I met with one of the keepers, Alice, who kindly told me about their involvement in the breeding programme. The kittens were at an age where they were boldly clambering around their cage and though they look quite similar to domestic cats, watching the adults hiss as they were being fed confirmed their wildness! The kittens are the first of their species to be born at Shepreth and the second most endangered animal that the park looks after.
A sub-species of the European wildcat, Scottish wildcats are solitary and largely nocturnal, patrolling up to 10km a night to hunt through a range of habitats including woodland and open moorland. They are a shy and elusive species – the kittens especially so to avoid being predated by predators such as golden eagles.
Though they look similar, Scottish wildcats are a different species to our domestic cats. They have stockier bodies, bushier tails and wider jaws for eating prey, which consists mostly of rabbits and rodents. However, one of the threats to their survival is interbreeding with domesticated cats. If the wildcats have any white on them, it’s one sign that they have some domestic cat in them. To be involved in the Saving Wildcats breeding programme, the cats have to be 75% or more true Scottish wildcat. David Barclay, ex-situ conservation manager at Saving Wildcats, investigated which organisations and people held captive wildcats in the UK. Sequencing and analysis of these cats’ DNA was then used to carefully determine which wildcats had hybridised with domestic cats in their past and which wildcats could be used in the breeding programme.
The parents of the kittens at Shepreth (Canna and Raymond) were found to be sufficiently true Scottish wildcat to be involved in the breeding programme. Their kittens could be released into the wild in the Scottish Highlands next year or be used for future breeding and release efforts. The kittens were sexed and microchipped in July and David Barclay will decide where they should go.
Canna. Image taken by Sandra Ortuño, Shepreth Wildlife Park.
Raymond. Image taken by Sandra Ortuño, Shepreth Wildlife Park.
It is possible that the kittens could have a similar future to the 22 cats which were born in 2022 and released into undisclosed locations in the Cairngorms National Park in June earlier this year. Approved under a licence by NatureScot, this is the first year that the project has begun releasing wildcats and it follows several years of extreme preparation. The project plans to release up to 60 cats into the wild over the next three years. Starting with a soft release, the cats are initially put into a pre-release enclosure with an open top and large mesh, so birds, rats and mice can make their way into the cage and the cats can practice hunting before they are fully released into the wild. The enclosures also minimise the cats’ exposure to humans and disturbance.
The project is working closely with the local community, gamekeepers and landowners and has been carrying out a Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return programme of feral domestic cats to mitigate the threat posed to the wildcats by hybridisation. The wildcats that have been released into the Cairngorms legally protected habitat have also been fitted with GPS-radio-collars so their movements can be tracked and analysed.
In addition to the dilution of Scottish wildcats’ genes through interbreeding with domestic cats, other threats to Scottish wildcats include persecution and habitat loss and fragmentation. Only with projects such as Saving Wildcats and support from the local community, can there be hope that the Scottish wildcat population may become viable again.
It’s great to see somewhere local in Cambridgeshire helping to bring these cats back from the brink. Shepreth Wildlife Park has historically been involved in similar projects, such as red squirrel and polecat breeding programmes, and has a hedgehog hospital and rehabilitation programme.
To find out more about the Saving Wildcats project and how you can help, and to watch some videos of the kittens soon after they were born, follow these links:
www.facebook.com/watch/?v=294848046205307
www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/reintroductions-key-species/key-species/wildcat
Image copyright Sandra Ortuño, Shepreth Wildlife Park.
David Bradley
