Returning to the wild: Trail cameras capture the recovery of the 'Highland tiger'

Guest blog by Sandra-Anne Rainey (Experienced wildcat keeper) and Louise Hughes (Field officer) at Saving Wildcats

The release of 19 Scottish wildcats into the Cairngorms National Park in 2023 was a landmark moment in the recovery of Britain's rarest carnivore.

With the wildcats now settling into their new home, the team at Saving Wildcats are running a monitoring programme to reveal how the wildcats are getting on. In this guest blog, we're treated to some insights and images from the field...

Saving Wildcats is an EU partnership project dedicated to Scottish wildcat conservation and recovery, aiming to prevent the extinction of wildcats in Scotland by breeding and releasing them into the wild. As part of the project, the ex-situ (wildcat keepers) and the in-situ (the field officers) teams use camera traps in their day-to-day work. The relationship with NatureSpy means not only do we have an abundance of fantastic camera traps, but we get to trial different cameras too. NatureSpy have been incredibly generous, donating camera traps and their expertise to securing a future for one of Scotland’s most endangered species, the European wildcat.

Camera traps have been integral to the ex-situ keeper team in ensuring welfare and continual behavioural observations of the cats since the project welcomed its first wildcats into its’ off-show conservation breeding for release centre (CBRC) at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Highland Wildlife Park.

An extensive CCTV system was installed throughout the off-show CBRC in late 2022/early 2023 to facilitate monitoring the cats remotely. The camera traps compliment this system by providing footage with sound, which the CCTV system does not do. This helps the keeper team ensure minimal disturbance to the wildcats and optimum animal welfare, helping to prepare wildcats for the challenges of life in the wild.

In Summer 2023, 19 wildcats were released into the Cairngorms Connect landscape within the Cairngorms National Park. The field team is out daily tracking the wildcats across a vast area and we also use an abundance of camera traps to monitor them.

Over the last three winters we have been surveying the release area, of close to 200km², using nearly 100 trail cameras. This camera array has been looking at all wildlife across the release area and now, finally and very excitedly, we can say that we are capturing wildcats on them.

Alongside these existing camera traps, we also put out ad hoc cameras to try and capture footage of these elusive mammals to give an insight into their behaviour. Getting images and videos of the cats they track has been hugely rewarding for all the team, as very rarely do we see them in the flesh!

We’re now over six months from the first releases of wildcats and pleased that 18 of the 19 released wildcats are still surviving, an excellent outcome for a translocation of a carnivore.

Our thanks to Sandra and Louise for sharing these fascinating insights into the recovery of the 'highland tiger'. Learn more about Saving Wildcats here.