Scotland’s wildcats were vanishing — the 50th just walked back into the Highlands

Fifty. That is how many critically endangered Scottish wildcats the Saving Wildcats project has now released into the Cairngorms National Park, four more this summer. The project, led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, began setting captive-bred cats loose in 2023. The deeper sign of hope is not just the number: wild-born kittens have now appeared for three years in a row, meaning the released cats are settling in and raising families on their own. More releases are planned to keep the gene pool healthy, including cats bred with Spanish wildcats — the closest living relatives of Scotland’s own. The cats remain critically endangered, and conservationists say the work is far from done — but “monumental step” is how the Cairngorms National Park’s head of conservation described it. Farmers, land managers and local communities are all part of the plan.