Conservationists have released 19 young wildcats into the Scottish Highlands as part of an effort to bring the cherished animal back from the edge of extinction.
Conservationists have released 19 young wildcats into the Scottish Highlands as part of an effort to bring the cherished animal back from the edge of extinction.
Scottish wildcats, which measure around 25 percent bigger than domestic cats, were once common in Scotland, but as of 2019, only around 30 remained in the wild. To boost their numbers, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland began nurturing young cats at a wildlife park in Kingussie.
Over the past three months, conservationists set loose 19 of these cats into the forested Cairngorm Mountains, The Guardian reported, in the first phase of a plan to release some 60 wildcats.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
A Scottish wildcat. (Photo Credit: Peter Trimming via Flickr)
