Firstly to correct the glaring error. In 1897 Scottish naturalists including one who had spent 45 years studying the species, declared that true Scottish wild cats had died out c 1860s like a number of other species due to hunting. We have the taxidermy of some of the last wild cats although even these were likely hybridised.
What is being released are wild tabbies. These are bred from imported European wild cats which themselves are likely hybridised and not related to true British wild cats. Even if you were able to stop game keepers and land owners killing wild cats (the law is so feeble that irt cannot) there are the 'fun shooters' who do want to have a wild cat they have killed in their photo album.
The other big threat that never existed to wild cats in the UK until the 1920s is the motor vehicle. Roads criss-cross every part of the UK and cut through woodland and forestry and very few drivers give a damn about any animal on "their" road.
That one had starved shows that it was not ready or suitable for release. Introducing and NOT re-introducing (you cannot "re-introduce" a foreign species as a species that ceased to exist in the mid 19th century) wild cats is doomed to failure because of the human factor -whether 'fun', 'vermin control' or car. Those scheduled for the Somerset Levels where night time shooting is nightly are also doomed.
From the 1980s-late 1990s European wild cats were being released in pairs across England in an unauthorised project. We have no idea how many survived although I occasionally hear of them.
Once a species is extinct it should be used to teach a lesson. We only have foxes, certain deer and other wildlife because hunting killed off native species and imported more from Europe to continue the 'sport'. This basically well known historical fact is what academics ignore deliberately (for funding reasons) or are ignorant of as they have never carried out any type of historical research and so when they find European DNA in a species they publish data which is incorrect or shall we say false.
Extinction is forever as we are about to see with a number of UK species including badgers and foxes.
Two Scottish wildcats raised in captivity before being released into the Cairngorms National Park have died.
Saving Wildcats project said one of the females, called Midge, was knocked down on a road.
It said the second, named Oats, died of starvation four weeks after her release.
The cats could be tracked by their GPS radio collars and were found by park rangers.
Saving Wildcats, whose partners include Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), NatureScot and the park authority, said Oats was in an area unlikely to have enough prey for her to feed on.
Supplementary food had been left in the area where she had been released, but she had not returned there.
Almost 30 wildcats have been released in the Cairngorms since last year as part of an effort to prevent the animals from vanishing from Scotland.
In the wild the species is extinct or on the brink of extinction, according to research.
Saving Wildcats said this year's release had been challenging due to bad summer weather.
But it said Midge's stomach was found to be full of voles and mice, suggesting she had been doing well before she was killed.
The project's Dr Helen Senn said life in the wild for animals was "incredibly challenging".
She said: "Immediately after release they are particularly vulnerable as they learn to adapt to their new life in the wild, to locate themselves in their environment, to learn about threats, and to become efficient hunters.
"Nobody is more saddened by the loss of these animals than the people working with them, because a lot of care is put into providing each released animal with the best chance possible."
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