Wildcats in Scotland are a critically endangered sub-population of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) and are the last remaining wild felid species in the UK. The main threats to the wildcat in Scotland are habitat loss, prey decline, and persecution from gamebird management, which have substantially reduced and fragmented populations, driving increased hybridisation with domestic cats. Despite a series of dedicated conservation projects, an independent status review by the IUCN Cat Specialist Group in 2019 concluded that the wildcat population was no longer viable without reinforcement from captive populations. In response to this crisis, the EU LIFE funded Saving Wildcats partnership project (2020-2026) was developed, led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS). Saving Wildcats will conduct the first trial releases of sixty wildcats into a prepared release site in the Cairngorms National Park between 2023-2025, with the aim to establish a population. The dedicated captive breeding for release facility was built at the RZSS Highland Wildlife Park between 2020-2022, with the first litter of twenty-two kittens born in Spring 2022. Pre-release surveys of the release site confirmed low risks from hybridisation and predator control, and positive support from the local community. The project was granted a translocation licence in January 2023, and the first (soft) releases took place in Summer 2023. Extensive post-release monitoring, including GPS collaring of released wildcats, is providing vital information for targeting ongoing threat mitigation, including Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return of feral cats and engagement with gamekeepers, as well as key behavioural data to inform subsequent releases.