Bring the wildcats back to Britain
The European wildcat is Britain’s rarest mammal, and our only surviving native cat species. Currently, the only wild population of these rare cats live in the remote Scottish Highlands, but with just 300 animals left that population is now so depleted that they have been declared functionally extinct.
We must act now to save this species from total extinction in Britain.
Our aim is to create the first British population of wildcats outside of Scotland since the 1800s. The species disappeared from England and Wales over a century ago because of persecution. Our actions have driven wildcats to the brink of extinction, so now we have a duty to save them – we need to work with nature, not against it.
Wildcats are incredibly important because of the impact they can have on the landscape around them. Their natural behaviours can help create space for hundreds of other species to thrive. A healthy population of Wildcats in the wild will help to restore the balance in the ecosystem by controlling numbers of prey animals, such as rabbits and rodents, and predators such as foxes through competition for food.
With your help, we can begin to establish a self-sustaining wildcat population in areas where they once would have thrived.
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£30 feeds a wildcat for one week
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£100 builds a denbox for a wildcat breeding enclosure
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£1,000 covers all veterinary care for one wildcat kitten
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This year we’ve already had one litter of kittens born at Wildwood, with the possibility of more on the way. These cats need expert care to make sure they can develop the natural behaviours that could one day help them survive in the wild. The kittens also require dedicated veterinary care to make sure they are healthy.
To continue to support the restoration of wildcats, we need to build four new breeding enclosures at our park in Devon. Each enclosure will house a breeding pair of cats, which will produce healthy kittens every year for release back into the wild.
To make sure these enclosures are ready in time we need to start building by the end of the summer.
Help us return this beautiful species back to the wild by donating today.
