An incredible year at Highland Wildlife Park

2022 was a phenomenal year for our charity and its parks as we launched a new Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) strategy pledging to reverse the decline of at least 50 species by 2030. Let’s take a look back at a brilliant 12 months at Highland Wildlife Park!

In the spring, the UK’s youngest polar bear took his first steps outside and was named Brodie after a public vote. He can often be seen playing with mum Victoria and has become one of our visitors’ favourite personalities. Brodie is an amazing ambassador for his cousins in the wild, helping visitors to connect with nature and raise awareness of the threats the species face.

We began to hear the pitter patter of little spotted paws in June when snow leopard Animesh gave birth to three cubs. Padme, Maya and Yashin have since been introduced to dad Koshi and the family is thriving. The trio were named by two of our wildlife conservation charity’s donors and long time supporters People’s Postcode Lottery, whose players have raised an outstanding £3 million for RZSS.

Autumn was an exciting time for invertebrate conservation. In September we completed our first ever small scabious mining bee survey at the park as part of the Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms (RIC) partnership. As one of Scotland’s rarest bees, it was heartening to discover important nest sites and 70 bees during the survey.

We were also thrilled to learn that critically endangered pine hoverflies have been breeding successfully in new populations thanks to conservation efforts by the RIC partnership. Individuals were found in previously unoccupied tree stumps, signalling a big step forward for the species and meaning that at least some of the pine hoverflies we released from the breeding programme at the park have completed a full life cycle.

The Saving Wildcats partnership project, which is led by our charity and based in a quiet area away from visitors at the park, had a lot to celebrate last year. We had a very successful first breeding season with a total of 22 wildcat kittens born who could be among the first of their species to be released into the wild in Britain. The project team have been building pre-release enclosures with help from volunteers and we plan to release wildcats into carefully selected locations in the Cairngorms National Park for the first time in 2023.

Stronger communities have a greater capacity to care for wildlife, which is why a vital part of our new discovery centre project will be helping more people realise the mental and physical health and wellbeing benefits of being close to nature.

Work on Scotland’s Wildlife Discovery Centre began in December and will continue throughout 2023, with plans to open to the public in spring 2024. The £8 million project includes building three hubs around the park that will showcase the challenges facing wildlife in Scotland and around the world. Crucially, we will also focus on the opportunities to protect nature and the actions we can take in our everyday lives.

Every visit to Highland Wildlife Park, purchase in our gift shop, RZSS membership, animal adoption and donation makes it possible to continue our work to save wildlife and empower people in Scotland and around the world to protect value and love nature.

Thank you so much for supporting us in 2022 – we are so excited to welcome you back this year and see what 2023 brings!

David Field

RZSS CEO