Rare footage of Pallas’s cat kittens at Highland Wildlife Park
Camera trap footage has captured the moment six rare Pallas’s cat kittens ventured outside their nest box at the Highland Wildlife Park.
The kittens, which are less than three months old, are a success story for the park as this threatened species is extremely difficult to breed due to high neonatal mortality rates.
Pallas’s cats are highly susceptible to toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that is often fatal to kittens.
In order to minimise the risk of infection to any kittens, keepers at the park developed a strategy that mixed together technology, medical treatment plans and animal management.
The adult Pallas’s cats, male Beebop and female Alula, were moved to an off-show enclosure, which had been fitted with camera traps and a sound activated recorder.
This helped the keepers find out when mating occurred so the treatment plan could begin.
Over 1,400 individual vocalisation events were recorded and mapped out by senior keeper David Barclay and animal department support Jan Morse.
Mr Barclay said: "The key time that a prevention treatment for toxoplasmosis needs to begin is in the early days of a potential pregnancy.
"Unlike other treatment programmes that can be very intensive and stressful to the cats, our work here has allowed us to implement our veterinary protocol in a completely stress free environment.
"I believe our technique of using Pallas’s cat vocalisations to give us a clearer insight into their breeding behaviour is a world first and that over time the results will help to improve our success with this species.
"It has also given us a unique insight into the behaviour of these cats which will be invaluable for future management."
The six kittens are only the third litter of Pallas’s cats to be born worldwide so far this year.
Very little is known about wild Pallas’s cats, which are native to central Asia and the Middle East.
The species faces many threats including the poisoning of prey species for pest control, hunting for skins and body parts, habitat loss and population fragmentation.
Go to the park’s YouTube channel to see more of the kittens: www.youtube.com/watch?v=neX11UHXfu0
