European
cats to be released into Highlands in ‘last-ditch effort’ to help save species
Severin
Carrell
Scotland editor
Wed 27 Feb
2019 11.01 GMTLast modified on Wed 27 Feb 2019 18.00 GMT
Conservationists
are planning to release captive European wildcats into the Highlands in a final
attempt to save the Scottish wildcat from extinction.
The new
measures, described by ecologists as a last-ditch effort to save the species,
follow an expert report that confirmed the Scottish wildcat was on the verge of
becoming genetically extinct, with as few as 30 left in isolated pockets of the
Highlands.
“Based on
the available information, we consider the wildcat population in Scotland to be
no longer viable,” the report from the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN), released on Wednesday, stated.
“The number
of wildcats is too small, the hybridisation too far advanced and the population
too fragmented. We therefore conclude that it is too late to conserve the
wildcat in Scotland as a
standalone population.”
Conservation
sources said the Scottish government had supported work on a captive breeding
and release programme from a new wildcat conservation centre being built at the
Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) wildlife park near Kingussie in
the Cairngorms.
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