- Four lynx were illegally released in Scotland earlier this year by an unknown party, sparking condemnation. One of the cats died shortly after capture. That release comes amid long-running discussions of a possible reintroduction of this wildcat to the United Kingdom.
- Conservationists are working to reintroduce small cats across the globe. There are about 40 recognized species of wildcats, including a handful of charismatic big cats and at least 33 small wildcat species — with some of the most threatened felid species numbering among them.
- Mongabay spoke to experts working on small cat recovery projects in various stages of progress to understand what can make small cat reintroductions successful.
- Small wildcat reintroductions are presently underway or under consideration on the Iberian Peninsula, in Scotland, Argentina, Taiwan, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand and elsewhere.
For the briefest moment earlier this year, the Eurasian lynx — extinct in the U.K. for thousands of years — returned to the wild in Scotland. But this release wasn’t scientifically planned. Rather, it was an illegal act that drew condemnation from authorities and conservationists alike. Though the four lynx were swiftly captured; one died shortly after. Following the illegal release, Scottish First Minister John Swinney ruled out a legal reintroduction of lynx (Lynx lynx), or other large carnivores, under his government.
“Acting illegally and without consultation is extremely damaging to the cause of conservation and well-planned releases,” says Helen Senn, head of conservation and science programs at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. “I think [the illegal release] will really undermine the trust of stakeholders like farmers and landowners [involved] in the process that conservationists go through … to get releases approved.”
Senn is part of a legal rewilding project that aims to restore the Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris), also affectionately dubbed the “Highland tiger” by the Scottish people, even though it’s not much bigger than a house cat. This project is supported and funded by the Scottish government so will be unaffected by Swinney’s recent statement barring large carnivore reintroductions.
The Scottish wildcat — a subpopulation of the European wildcat that arrived on what is today the island of Britain at the end of the last ice age 9,000 years ago, and which has remained isolated from mainland populations — was declared “functionally extinct” in 2018 largely due to inbreeding with domestic cats.
An alliance of conservationist organizations led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has thus far released 28 captive-bred Scottish wildcats in the space of two years. During that time, released cats have birthed at least 24 kittens in the wild. That initial achievement has in turn spawned “a huge amount of positivity” regarding future success, Senn says.
“The survival and reproduction rate at this early stage is really quite good,” she notes. “It can be very challenging to get carnivore releases off to a good start and establish a population. And we’re really starting to do that.”
Rewilding small wildcats: An underutilized tool?
The Scottish wildcat isn’t alone. Mongabay spoke to conservationists engaged in small wildcat reintroductions on three continents to understand how to get these tricky projects off the ground and ensure achievement of the long-term goal of restoring small wild felid populations amid rapidly changing modern landscapes and human communities.
Much media reporting and the general public have attached an alluring aura to these reintroductions, trumpeting a species’ successful return to the wild as a sexy conservation target, and representing it as an easy way to put a damaged ecosystem back together.
But there’s nothing easy about it, say those involved. Instead, it’s a monumental, costly, paperwork-heavy endeavor requiring painstaking planning, and often involving years of groundwork before a single cage door is opened and a wild animal bolts out.
Carnivore reintroductions come riddled with difficulties, with felids in particular causing consternation and strident opposition among those who live in close proximity to them. While the seven big cat species bring heightened fears of attacks on humans, small cat species concerns often center around poultry predation and can be significant for local communities, says Axel Moehrenschlager, director of the small cats program and conservation translocation at wildcat conservation NGO Panthera.
Translocations or reintroductions have been carried out for more than 3,000 species, according to Moehrenschlager, with small cats accounting for a small number. “It’s fascinating that as you look at cats — which are popular species among [many] cultures — people are not necessarily engaged in that many conservation translocations, especially for some of the most threatened species.”
That said, efforts are underway to reintroduce small cats to the wild where they’ve been lost. That includes the return of ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) to Argentina and the United States; southern tiger cats (Leopardus guttulus) and margays (Leopardus wiedii) to Santa Catarina island in Brazil; the black-footed cat (Felis nigripes) to regions of South Africa; clouded leopards (Neofelis diardi) to Taiwan; and possibly the endangered flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps) to Thailand.
Moehrenschlager says successful groundbreaking initiatives, such as the return of the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Europe, are providing a solid foundation of experience for the reintroduction of smaller felines elsewhere. “On the other hand, perhaps this tool is underutilized for small cats,” he says.
The Iberian lynx success: ‘A matter of passion and commitment’
In the early 2000s, the Iberian lynx was declared critically endangered, as numbers fell to fewer than 100 mature individuals in the wild, scattered across southern Andalucia in Spain, and extinct in neighboring Portugal. But in 2024, after more than two decades of methodically bolstering populations in the wild and restoring prey populations of rabbits decimated by disease, the IUCN declared a “dramatic recovery” and downgraded the lynx’s conservation status to vulnerable. Today, an estimated 2,000 Iberian lynx roam Spain and Portugal.
That’s certainly cause for celebration, says Astrid Vargas, who led the Iberian lynx captive-breeding program up to 2010 and authored a book on the project. “It’s the product of the passion and commitment of many teams of people, and also the support from government organizations,” she says. “There’s a lot behind the success of the Iberian lynx reintroduction.”
During the 2000s, conservationists began tackling the panoply of threats the species faced — addressing hunting, creating habitat connectivity, and crucially, restoring European rabbits, the lynx’s primary prey. A captive-breeding project promised increased numbers in the wild, but it wasn’t until 2010 that one of these cats placed a tentative paw in the Iberian wild.
Even then, “This experience was not exported to other regions of Spain and Portugal until four years later,” says Miguel Simon, who led the reintroduction for nearly two decades and is now retired. Portugal’s first release came two years later, in 2016.
This long game has offered up valuable lessons for conservationists continents away. In South America, wildlife experts are adopting Iberian lynx pre-release strategies, and adapting them to ocelot reintroductions in Argentina. Because Latin American conservationists lack a history of translocation (the moving of animals from where they are in the wild, to where they aren’t), these researchers are relying on ocelots sourced from zoos or rehabilitation centers — meaning the small cats must learn how to live in the wild, says Sebastián Di Martino, conservation director at Rewilding Argentina.
Though the Iberian lynx provides a successful reintroduction template, conservationists know field conditions can evolve rapidly. Simon, for example, notes that infectious rabbit disease still poses a threat to Iberian lynx survival, necessitating very close surveillance. The strengthening of lynx habitat connectivity is also ongoing, with a special focus on corridors between populations in Spain and Portugal. That the work of reintroduction is ongoing for many years after the final small cat’s release is in itself is a valuable takeaway, say experts.
“This gives us hope, not only for the lynx, but for many other species,” says Vargas. “But at the same time, we should not lower our guard because we are on this fine line between vulnerable and going back to endangered.”
Building a basis for successful reintroductions
Experts list several prerequisites for a successful reintroduction project, with community and local stakeholder buy-in foremost among them.
Senn says it’s essential to talk and listen to people who will live alongside a reintroduced species. In Scotland, work continues to minimize incidents of released wildcats preying on poultry and game birds, via the building of cat-proof pens, a tactic commonly employed by small cat conservationists worldwide. Also important are efforts to neuter and vaccinate feral domestic cats against disease, which reduces spread to wildcats.
Rewilding Argentina devoted several years of support to communities making a shift from a local economy dominated by cattle ranching to one dedicated to ecotourism. This change in livelihoods and perspective enabled the return of several species, including jaguars (Panthera onca).
It’s hoped similar success can be found for the ocelot, but an initial release of two cats last year ran into difficulty. One of Rewilding Argentina’s male cats died within a month of release, possibly due to snakebite, while the GPS collar failed on a female; her fate is unknown. Regrettably, mortality and other setbacks of this kind are not uncommon.
“When cats are released into the wild, there’s a steep learning curve they need to undergo, because they must become efficient hunters,” Senn explains. Two of the legally released Scottish wildcats died — one due to starvation, the other in a road accident — while a third went missing after its telemetry signal failed.
A swift, creative response to such challenges is key to success, says Jake Ivan, a wildlife research scientist at Colorado Parks and Wildlife. At the outset of Colorado’s Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) release in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a large number of deaths due to road accidents, starvation and other causes prompted a change in tactics.
“We took a pause and talked to a lot of folks, then readjusted and came up with a different … release protocol,” he says. “I think you always need to be monitoring and reflecting on how things are going and have the ability to adjust.”
Science to the fore
Another prerequisite for success: Reintroductions must be underpinned by solid science, say conservationists. This includes detailed habitat surveys to determine ideal release sites, along with close monitoring of sites before and after release.
Simon credits the Iberian lynx project’s success to scientific research carried out well before releases began, following IUCN reintroduction guidelines.
Another linchpin of any reintroduction is the undertaking of thorough genetic studies, says José Godoy, a researcher at the Doñana Biological Station in Spain. These studies assess which animals should breed to maximize genetic diversity in the wild. Godoy also emphasizes that projects should ensure reintroduced populations have habitat connectivity, and don’t encounter a genetic bottleneck or suffer inbreeding.
Researchers are currently developing the groundwork for a potential return of the clouded leopard to Taiwan. That reintroduction conversation is ongoing, says Yifeng Wang with the University of Oxford’s WildCRU, and deep scientific knowledge is still lacking. To date, researchers have conducted an initial habitat assessment and they plan to publish a study on prey availability.
“We want to make sure there is [sufficient] habitat, corridor connectivity, and prey that will be suitable for the clouded leopard in Taiwan,” Wang says. “Once we confirm this, I think that’s the time we can start to discuss whether we can bring this species back.”
That work shouldn’t end once animals are released, as further research can illuminate potential and unconsidered threats likely to be encountered after a reintroduced population is established. A 2025 study, for example, examined threats to Colorado’s already reintroduced Canada lynx population. Extirpated in the 1970s, that U.S. population is now estimated at around 75 to 100 individuals, after a reintroduction program begun in the late ’90s translocated lynx from neighboring Canada.
So far, the Colorado researchers have used monitoring data gathered from camera traps, GPS tracking and other sources to map core habitat areas predominantly used by lynx. They also learned that more frequent, high-severity fires linked to climate change are one of the major risk factors to this lynx-friendly habitat, trumping other lynx habitat threats including insect outbreaks and human activities. That’s because the small cats tend to avoid burned-over areas until the vegetation grows back, which can take decades.
“The reason we were able to refine the conservation focus is that we had high quality location data,” explains John Squires, a wildlife biologist at Rocky Mountain Research Station. “The role of research was central to conservation here.”
A small cat renaissance with great benefits
As with all small cat research, adequate ongoing funding is also a major challenge, especially because reintroductions come with a high price tag. It’s estimated that as little as 1-3% of all wildcat funding goes to small cat conservation. Given that, experts Mongabay spoke to emphasize that protecting remaining small cat populations in the wild is likely to be easier and far less expensive than returning them once they are gone.
Listed as the most threatened wildcat in the world, the Iberian lynx benefited from millions of euros in funding early on. Vast sums alone were spent on restoring Spain’s disease-decimated rabbit populations, says Simon. The latest project phase, running from 2020 to 2025 with the goal of enhanced connectivity, received more than 18 million euros ($18.8 million) in funding. Scotland’s wildcat rewilding project has cost around 6 million pounds ($7.6 million) over the last two years.
Restoring the Iberian lynx simply wouldn’t have happened without sustained support from multiple partners and donors, says Simon. For him, a reintroduction is a “long-distance race” that has to be sustained scientifically and financially to succeed. It’s “not an action that can be started and abandoned after a few years,” he says, and “It must be carried through to the end. And for this reason it is necessary to have guaranteed political support.”
And what, ultimately, is the value of bringing small cats back to the wild? It is a route to restoring ecological functioning, says Moehrenschlager, but it’s also much more than that. Amid the escalating biodiversity crisis and the incessant, discouraging barrage of species extinctions, successful reintroductions can push back against environmental apathy, he says. Reintroduced small cats can also be effective ambassadors for ecosystems and rewilding. And they offer beacons of hope, especially in societies that have strong cultural links to felids.
Then there’s the simple joy of spotting a small wildcat while on a forest walk.
“If we can show that small wildcats (which are very similar to the domestic cats that so many of us have in our homes) can be restored … and can be brought back against all odds, that can be profoundly inspirational for … conservation in general,” he says.
Back in Scotland, the early phases of reintroduction offer renewed hope that the Highland tiger will one day again thrive alongside people. “What we’re hoping to achieve is a population that’s viable and able to look after itself without any human intervention,” says Senn. “We all know from excellent projects like the Iberian lynx project that it can take a long time. We’re in this for the long haul, and we know that it’s going to take probably years of concerted effort to truly be successful.”
If conservationists triumph in Scotland, Argentina, Taiwan and elsewhere, it will be because they’ve dutifully learned from, and traveled along, roughly the same trails blazed by other small cat researchers — following the paw prints of successful reintroductions that came before them.
Banner image: An ocelot walks tentatively into a pre-release enclosure. Rewilding Argentina took lessons learned from the Iberian lynx project to prepare captive-bred ocelots during a “soft release,” says Sebastian Di Moreno of Rewilding Argentina. Image courtesy of Rewilding Argentina.
Bobcats are back, and they’re helping protect people from zoonotic disease
Citations:
Squires, J. R., Olson, L. E., Ivan, J. S., McDonald, P. M., & Holbrook, J. D. (2025). Anthropogenically protected but naturally disturbed: A specialist carnivore at its southern range periphery. Biodiversity and Conservation, 34, 401-427. doi:10.1007/s10531-024-02978-8
Wang, Y., Kaszta, Ż., Cushman, S. A., Chiang, P., Macdonald, D. W., & Hearn, A. J. (2024). A multi-scale, multivariate habitat selection model demonstrates high potential for the reintroduction of the clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa to Taiwan. Oryx, 1-4. doi:10.1017/s0030605324000802
Kleinman-Ruiz, D., Soriano, L., Casas-Marce, M., Szychta, C., Sánchez, I., Fernández, J., & Godoy, J. A. (2019). Genetic evaluation of the Iberian lynx ex situ conservation programme. Heredity, 123(5), 647-661. doi:10.1038/s41437-019-0217-z
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
Credits
