The birth of wildcat kittens at a Kent wildlife park has sparked fresh hopes for the survival of Britain’s rarest mammal species, conservationists said.
The Wildwood Trust’s Herne Bay park, just outside Canterbury, said the litter were born around nine weeks ago in a dedicated off-show breeding enclosure, to parents Talla and Blair.
Laura Gardner, director of conservation at the trust, said the kittens will play an important role in bringing back the species from the “brink of extinction”.
European wildcats are considered rarer than the Bengal tiger and giant panda, and are the only native cat species surviving in Britain, with a small population still roaming the Scottish Highlands.
But with an estimated fewer than 300 individuals left, the population has been declared “functionally extinct”.
A wildcat kitten born at Herne Bay park in Kent(Image: (Dave Butcher/Wildwood Trust/PA))
Ms Gardner said: “Wildwood has been breeding wildcats for over ten years, building knowledge and expertise of the species which has led to our amazing breeding success.
“By working together with the breeding programme partners, we are ensuring the beautiful wildcat has a future in Britain.”
The kittens at Wildwood will contribute to the wildcat conservation breeding programme coordinated by The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which has been designed to support the restoration of the species in Britain.
READ MORE: Wildcats bred in captivity released in national park
A healthy population of reintroduced wildcats will help to restore the balance in the ecosystem by controlling numbers of prey animals, such as rabbits and rodents, and of predators such as foxes through competition for food, conservationists said.
This in turn can have a ripple effect across ecosystems, by which habitats for many more plant and wildlife species can be restored, they added.
European wildcats are the only native cat species surviving in Britain (Image: (Dave Butcher/Wildwood Trust))
Wildwood, which has a successful history of breeding wildcats, said the new kittens are the first to be born since the completion of dedicated breeding enclosures at the Herne Bay park.
Sally Holt, head of carnivores and small mammals at Wildwood, said the new facilities have been key in helping support the breeding of this secretive species.
READ MORE: Key threats to critically endangered Scottish wildcats revealed
“Wildcats have very particular den box preferences, so we worked hard with researchers to find the right design for the new enclosures,” she said.
“The off-show enclosures have created a quieter environment, which will help the kittens develop key survival skills without becoming habituated to people.”
“Our remote cameras mean we can monitor their behaviour and it’s been wonderful to see their characters develop.
The kittens were born in a dedicated off-show breeding enclosure (Image: (Dave Butcher/Wildwood Trust/PA))
“They have such a close bond already and enjoy playing and sleeping next to each other.”
Wildwood Trust said people can support the wildcat conservation work here
Ms Holt said the kittens will undergo health checks with the park’s veterinary team in the coming days.
The team will also check their sex and gather data on neck circumference measurements for collaring research that will support future tracking and release success.
Trail-camera surveys conducted from 2010 to 2013 in Scotland estimated that there could be as few as 115 to 314 individual wildcats in Scotland.
A solitary species, except during breeding season, the cats tend to live on woodland edge, in the margins of mountains and moorlands.
Experts admit that it is not possible to say that all cats seen in the wild with classic wildcat markings are genetically ‘pure’, but state that wild-living cats that look like wildcats should be treated as such and regarded as legally protected.
NatureScot, Scotland's nature agency, launched the Scottish Wildcat Conservation Action Plan in 2013 to further the conservation and recovery of the species.
Wildcat projects in Scotland are also supported by a European partnership project, Saving Wildcats, which aims to establish Britain's first large-scale dedicated conservation 'breeding for release' centre.
The conservation, breeding and release of wildcats is being carried out by the Saving Wildcats partnership led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) in collaboration with NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA), Norden's Ark and Junta de Andalucía.
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