Scotland sets 2045 target for thriving wildcat population
A new national strategy aims to rebuild a sustainable Scottish Wildcat population, combining further releases with action on hybridisation, habitat fragmentation and avoidable deaths.
Scotland has set out a long-term plan to restore its wildcats, with a target of achieving thriving, expanding populations by 2045.
Scotland's Wildcat Strategy 2025-2045 was launched on 22 September at the Eurowildcat Conference at Highland Wildlife Park, near Kingussie. Twenty-six organisations contributed to the strategy, which is supported by an initial ten-year action plan.
The ambition extends beyond keeping a small number of released animals alive. Its vision is for wildcat populations to sustain themselves with limited intervention, supported by connected habitat and changes that reduce the threats responsible for their decline.
Wildcats were declared functionally extinct in Scotland in 2019. Hybridisation with domestic and feral cats remains the principal threat to their genetic identity, while disease, road collisions, habitat fragmentation and accidental harm during predator control also impede recovery.
The strategy builds on the Saving Wildcats programme, which began releasing captive-bred animals into the Cairngorms National Park in 2023. Subsequent breeding in the wild has provided an early indication that released animals can establish and reproduce.
Further conservation translocations are envisaged, but the plan stresses the need for careful preparation. Restoring and reconnecting suitable habitat is intended to allow populations to expand beyond individual release areas.
Domestic-cat management is another central element. Increased neutering, vaccination and microchipping are proposed alongside work with communities, while changes to predator-control practices are intended to reduce the risk of wildcats being killed unintentionally.
The strategy groups its work under ten goals, covering population recovery, disease and other threats, hybridisation, land management and coexistence with people. Development of the plan was facilitated by the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Conservation Planning Specialist Group.
A new Scottish Wildcat Advisory Group will oversee implementation, review progress and advise the organisations delivering individual projects. The strategy also recognises that actions must be prioritised and resourced: organisations named as leads are not automatically expected to finance all the work allocated to them.
22 Sep 2026
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