Current status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 23 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that two captive-bred wildcats died after their release into Cairngorms National Park.
Although the deaths of the two captive-bred wildcats, who died after their release into Cairngorms National Park, is disappointing, these deaths need to be set in context. They bring the total deaths to date to three from a release of 28 wildcats since last year.
Conditions this year have been more challenging due to poor weather and this year representing a low point in the vole population cycle, which are one of the wildcats’ main prey species.
Some mortality is expected in reintroduction projects (as we would also expect in the wild population), with the current rate at the lower end of what we would anticipate. The survival rate of the wildcats released last year has been much higher than anticipated, and wild births have also increased wildcat numbers in the area.
This is down to the extensive planning and efforts of the Scottish Wildcat Action project and its partners to ensure that released wildcats have the best possible chance of survival following their release. The Saving Wildcats field team closely monitor all of the released wildcats using GPS-radio collars and a network of camera traps, and have been providing them with supplementary food in the weeks immediately after their release.?