Five critically endangered Scottish wildcat kittens have been born at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) Highland Wildlife Park.
Keepers at the wildlife conservation charity say they are doing well and will receive their first health checks in the coming weeks where expert vets will be able to determine their sex.
Keith Gilchrist, animal collection manager at Highland Wildlife Park, said: “We are thrilled to welcome five Scottish wildcat kittens born to mum Talla and dad Blair on 2 April 2023. This is Talla’s first litter, and she is taking to motherhood brilliantly and being very attentive.
READ MORE: 'Absolutely heartbroken' Scottish wildlife centre puts down wolf pack
"The kittens are doing extremely well and are getting more confident every day. It has been fantastic to see them growing curious about their surroundings and start exploring their home in Wildcat Wood with Talla by their side.
"Wildcats are Scotland's most iconic animal but sadly also one of our most endangered. This incredible species in on the brink of extinction due to historic habitat loss and hunting. More recently they have become increasingly threatened by interbreeding with domestic cats.”
The kittens, which are on show to the public at Wildcat Wood, are managed as part of the UK breeding programme held by RZSS and could eventually play an important role in the recovery efforts in Scotland.
Keith added: “It’s an incredibly exciting time for wildcats in Scotland and we are delighted the kittens will help engage visitors with this iconic species and inspire more people to protect, value and love nature.”
Visitors can spot Talla and her five kittens exploring Highland Wildlife Park’s on-show enclosures.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here