News

A captive breeding programme for Scottish wildcats, thought to be the first in the UK, is about to be launched at a Kent Wild Animal Park.
 

There are fears the animals could be facing extinction but the new enclosure at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park near Hythe will recreate the wildcats' natural habitat by encouraging the animals to hunt and breed as they would in the wild.

Visitors visiting the park may be disappointed though, as the breeding cats will not be on view to the public.

Human interaction is being kept to a minimum to make it easier for them to be returned to the wild.

Their enclosure, which has a copse of trees and a running stream, will initially house a pair of wildcats and any offspring. As the animals multiply, separate enclosures will be built to accommodate up to five breeding pairs.

Scotland is the last mainland stronghold of the wildcat, which had disappeared from England and Wales by 1862.

The animals have died out as a result of breeding with stray domestic cats, disease and their vanishing habitat.

It is estimated there could be fewer than 400 left in the wild.

The Aspinall Foundation, which runs the park came up with the idea. Already through a breeding programme they have successfully re-introduced lowland gorillas to the Congo.