The Scottish wildcat is one of Britain's most endangered mammals, numbering perhaps fewer than 300 pure individuals. An intensive conservation programme including captive breeding and reintroduction aims to save the species.
Scottish wildcat conservation involves significant welfare considerations at both individual and population level. Captive breeding animals live in controlled environments that attempt to maintain wild behaviour while preventing hybridisation - a balance that requires careful housing design and minimal human contact. Reintroduced individuals face the welfare challenges of adapting to a new environment, establishing territories, and finding prey without previous wild experience. The conservation imperative makes these welfare costs acceptable if reintroduction is successful, but the welfare obligation is to minimise stress during translocation and provide the best possible conditions for establishment. The long-term welfare of the species depends on success - individual welfare costs of reintroduction are justified if they contribute to population viability.