Inside Scotland’s wildcat HQ – ‘It’s like Big Brother for cats’

Scottish Land and Estates has been supportive of the Scottish Wildcat Conservation Action Plan.

Several estates have been actively helping: providing release sites, monitoring the wildcats, recording sightings.

Lots of the information being gathered does come from public sightings.

Louise takes me to the territory on which one wildcat that was recently captured on camera: “The cat that lives in this territory, Sully, is an amazing cat. She was released in 2024 and she has been captured on video swimming across the River Spey.”

Wildcats, she says, “never cease to surprise us.”

Estelle Morgan points out that wildcats were once widespread throughout the UK.

The work they are doing in the Cairngorms will help inform releases elsewhere in Scotland.

She says the only native cat found in the wild in Britain “deserves to be here, they’re part of the landscape.”