Royal Zoological Society of Scotland
Saving Wildcats
The Highland Tiger faces extinction in the wild. Can you help to support a future for the wildcat in Scotland?
Story
Clinging by a claw...
Will you save the Highland Tiger?
The wildcat is our rarest and most threatened mammal. Once widespread, wildcats are now on the brink of extinction in Scotland. A sad history of habitat loss, persecution and, more recently, breeding with domestic cats, has forced the Highland Tiger to a point where the population is no longer viable.
Without urgent action, wildcats will be lost forever from Britain.
The wildcat's survival now hangs on establishing the UK's first large scale dedicated conservation breeding for release centre for wildcats. In a quiet location near the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland's Highland Wildlife Park in the Cairngorms National Park, the centre brought together wildcat experts, a dedicated veterinary unit and a specialised pre-release training programme to help develop the necessary life skills needed for life in the wild.
After years of extensive preparation, the first releases of wildcats into the wild in Scotland took place in summer 2023.
You can give wildcats a future. By donating or creating your own fundraising challenge, you will be supporting their survival in Scotland.
£7.50 could feed a wildcat for a week
£30 could vaccinate one of the cats to protect them from disease
£350 could feed a wildcat for an entire year in the new centre
£1500 could buy a GPS collar to monitor a wildcat once it has been released into the wild
£5000 could fund essential veterinary equipment to care for wildcats
