GOING WILD: You chance to help ensure Scottish wildcats survive in Cairngorm
The Saving Wildcats partnership released 19 wildcats over the summer of 2023 and recently shared the exciting news that seven of the females released as part of this initial cohort had given birth to kittens.
The litters range in size from one to four individuals and the field team have been monitoring them exploring their new homes using a network of camera traps placed across the north of the Cairngorms National Park.
However, this has been no simple task. Extreme care must be taken when camera trapping wildcats especially with young cats.
The mothers and kittens should not be disturbed so all our monitoring work is carried out under license from NatureScot.
This monitoring would not have been possible without the support of local landowners, gamekeepers and the local community.
With their help we have been able to access land and set up camera traps in crucial spots to keep tabs on the movement and behaviour of these feisty felines.
Prior to their release, all the wildcats (including the females that gave birth this summer) were fitted with GPS-radio collars allowing us to keep tabs on their movements.
The collar battery lasts for eight to nine months so the field team replaced many of these collars prior to the breeding season.
This allowed us to keep further tabs on the mothers during their pregnancies, helped us to determine the likelihood of whether the kittens were fathered by released wildcat males, and has also helped us to situate camera traps in places with the best possible chance of monitoring the kittens.
Camera traps are crucial for monitoring kittens.
Unlike their mothers, kittens cannot be fitted with GPS-radio collars as they are still growing, and a fitted collar would not grow with them.
As some of these kittens are now over five months old, they are beginning to become independent and exploring on their own. This is where you come in – we need your help.
If you think you’ve seen a young wildcat, particularly in the Badenoch and Strathspey area where the wildcats were released, please email us at wildcats@rzss.org.uk so we can keep track of their movements.
Wildcat kittens take some time to develop their distinctive coat markings (approximately nine months to a year), so may not have all the characteristics that are typically associated with wildcats.
However, they will be brown/grey in colour with dark stripes/spotted markings (often described as ‘tabby’) and are the same size as a juvenile domestic cat would be.
So, if you think you have any information about the whereabouts of these kittens, we would be incredibly grateful!
For more information about the work of Saving Wildcats, visit www.savingwildcats.org.uk
Dr Keri Langridge is Saving Wildcats In-situ conservation manager.
