From behind a giant bank of screens in a small windowless room, Estelle Morgan, animal team leader from the Saving Wildcats partnership, is keeping an eye on the latest wildcats being bred in captivity for release into the Cairngorms. "It's like Big Brother for cats", she says of the 72 cameras being used to watch over the animals in their enclosures. They are assessing whether they're healthy and have the behavioural potential to survive in the wild.
"We want to know what the cats are actually doing," she says. "What are they like without us there? she adds. Can they navigate complex structures?
Are they active at natural times?" This year they were even able to capture on camera for the first time a wildcat giving birth. It is quite a surveillance programme - but it has to be. They don't want the cats to become comfortable around people and contact is kept to an absolute minimum.
They are also assessing the cats' behaviour ahead of being released: "If we've got some cats which are quite bold does that mean they're more likely to go near roads in the wild, or venture closer to a farm or to human settlements," she says. Saving Wildcats has been successful in reintroducing 46 wildcats into the flats and foothills of the Cairngorms. Those wildcats have successfully reproduced and the team working on the project are aware of at least 20 wild-born litters to released females since 2024.
There are now plans to reintroduce wildcat populations into other areas in Scotland. The Cairngorm project has had "an enormous amount of success, but it is only the first step," says NatureScot species project manager Dr Martin Gaywood. Now he says they need to think big: "Wildcat conservation is really complex.
It has all sorts of threats and issues and in order to restore wildcats to the whole of Scotland we need to plan long term and we need to plan at a big scale." Dr Gaywood is optimistic that with careful planning the translocation of wildcats into other parts of Scotland could happen within years: "It would be great maybe within the next five years to start at least one new project, you never know maybe two," he says. As well as identifying new release sites, the national strategy will prioritise restoring and reconnecting wildcat habitats to allow the expansion of their range. In the areas chosen for the eventual translocation of wildcat populations there will be additional microchipping, neutering and vaccination of pet and feral cats to reduce interbreeding.
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