A conservation centre is celebrating the birth of four wildcat kittens – one of Britain’s rarest mammals.

The Wildwood Trust, based between Canterbury and Herne Bay, hopes the nine-week-olds can play a vital role in securing a future for the endangered species.

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The kittens, which have not yet been named, were born in an off-show breeding enclosure to parents Talla and Blair.

Laura Gardner, director of conservation at Wildwood Trust, said: “Wildwood has been breeding wildcats for over 10 years, building knowledge and expertise of the species which has led to our amazing breeding success.

“By working together with the breeding programme partners, we are ensuring the beautiful wildcat has a future in Britain.”

European wildcats are considered rarer than the Bengal Tiger and Giant Panda and are the only native cat species surviving in Britain, with a small population still roaming the Scottish Highlands.

However, with only an estimated 300 individuals left, the population has been declared “functionally extinct”.

The new kittens are the first to be born at Wildwood since the completion of dedicated breeding enclosures at the site.

Sally Holt, the park’s head of carnivores and small mammals, said: “Wildcats have very particular den box preferences, so we worked hard with researchers to find the right design for the new enclosures.

“The off-show enclosures have created a quieter environment, which will help the kittens develop key survival skills without becoming habituated to people.

“Our remote cameras mean we can monitor their behaviour and it’s been wonderful to see their characters develop. They have such a close bond already and enjoy playing and sleeping next to each other.

“In the coming days they’ll undergo health checks with our veterinary team and will be sexed so we’ll know their gender. We’ll also gather data on their neck circumference measurements to help towards collaring research for future tracking release success.”

The kittens at Wildwood, will contribute to the wildcat conservation breeding programme coordinated by The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which has been designed to support the restoration of the species in Britain.

A healthy population of reintroduced wildcats will help to restore the balance in the ecosystem by controlling numbers of prey animals, such as rabbits and rodents, and of predators such as foxes through competition for food.

This in turn has a ripple effect across ecosystems, by which habitats for many more plant and wildlife species can be restored.