Saving Scottish Wildcats Documentary: A Premiere with Purpose
On Tuesday, 21st April 2026, join TENT and Saving Wildcats at the London Premiere of the new Scottish wildcats documentary, Clinging by a Claw.
Join us and celebrate progress towards a restored Scottish wildcat population in Scotland. In doing so, you’ll help support the next critical phase of this major population recovery project. So, this is your chance to help save a heritage species and meet passionate conservationists making a real difference. You’ll also learn more about the practical work behind Scottish wildlife conservation efforts.
The Highland Tiger is Clinging by a Claw
Known as the Highland tiger, Scottish wildcats are among the UK’s most iconic predators. They form a crucial part of Scotland’s natural heritage and once roamed across Britain and Europe. However, over time, persecution, habitat loss, disease, and hybridisation with domestic cats drove the population close to extinction. These pressures explain why Scottish wildcats are endangered today.
As Britain’s last remaining native cat and one of its few apex predators, Scottish wildcats play a vital role in healthy ecosystems. They regulate prey numbers and help diversify woodland and grassland habitats. In 2019, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature declared the species ‘functionally extinct’ in the wild. This is because, at that point, too few wildcats remained to rebuild a healthy population, even with full legal protection.
So, without a strategic programme to strengthen genetic health and release wildcats back into suitable habitats, Scotland would have lost the species entirely.
The Film by Saving Wildcats
The Scottish wildcat documentary Clinging by a Claw is a 60-minute film narrated by Outlander star Sam Heughan. It follows the struggle and hopeful comeback of the Scottish wildcat, tracing its journey from the brink of extinction. Along the way, it reveals intimate moments of wildcats living in the rugged landscape of the Cairngorms National Park.
The film also examines conservation work led by Saving Wildcats, showing how coordinated action supports safe reintroductions across the Highlands. Set against striking Highland scenery, the documentary offers both a warning and a hopeful vision for the future of Scottish wildcats.
Clinging by a Claw was produced by our partners at SCOTLAND: The Big Picture.
Buy Your Tickets
Buy your tickets using the link below and support the restoration of Scottish wildcats.
TENT directs 100% of ticket proceeds to Saving Wildcats to fund the next phase of the project. So, your ticket acts as a direct donation. It also includes a welcome drink, snacks and canapés after the screening, served in the beautiful Pollini bar.
BOOK TICKETS HERE
The Details
Date: 21st April 2026
Location: Ladbroke Hall, London
17:30 – Welcome drinks, courtesy of Glenmorangie and Möet–Hennessy
18:30 – Screening
19:30 – Panel discussion
19:50 – Auction
20:15 – Drinks, networking and canapés in the Pollini bar
Tickets: £75.00
100% of your ticket is allocated to Saving Wildcats. So, you can support the next phase of the conservation programme. Includes welcome drink, snacks and canapés.
Food & Drink: You’ll enjoy welcome drinks provided by TENT and sponsors on arrival. At 20:15, we are serving canapés and drinks in the Pollini bar.
Auction:We have two well curated auction prizes on offer. Choose from the ‘Alladale Wilderness Reserve and Glenmorangie Whisky Adventure’, or get closer to the story of wildcat recovery, with the ‘Cairngorms Scottish Wildcat Adventure’.
The Saving Wildcats Project
Saving Wildcats, led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, delivers one of the UK’s most significant efforts to prevent the extinction of the Scottish wildcat. The partnership focuses on long-term recovery across suitable landscapes in Scotland.
The project uses a conservation breeding-for-release approach. Teams release wildcats into carefully selected sites and monitor their behaviour, ecology, and population growth. In 2025, the partnership released Scottish wildcats into the Cairngorms National Park, marking a crucial step forward for the species.
In 2025 alone, the project released 18 wildcats. That brings the total number released so far to 46. These releases form a meaningful contribution to the current Scottish wildcat population. Encouragingly, some wild-living females have now produced litters of kittens during the spring and summer of 2024 and 2025.
To restore a fully viable population, conservationists must continue fieldwork and monitoring, to better understand the ecology and behaviour of released wildcats. This work helps researchers understand how released wildcats adapt in the wild; at the same time, by identifying suitable Scottish wildcat locations for future releases and funding future releases, the project is working to form a connected and resilient wildcat population.
The Premiere’s Impact for Scottish Wildcats
To continue this remarkable effort to restore wildcat populations across Scotland, Saving Wildcats needs critical support. Through ticket sales and an auction, 100% of the funds raised will be donated by TENT to Saving Wildcats for the next phase of the project. Because crucially, we all have a role to play in the extinction crisis, including you. And this is your opportunity to help save a heritage species by attending this highly enjoyable evening.
In doing so, you’re supporting the practical work of wildlife conservation in Scotland. What’s more, you’ll be contributing to wider wildlife conservation in the UK and Europe.
This Premiere event will help foster pride and commitment to saving the Scottish wildcat from extinction.
By attending, you are choosing to help build a future where wild species like the wildcat live peacefully in Scotland again.
Meet conservationists, philanthropists, business & media guests and more at this important celebratory event.
The Panel
After the screening, we’ll be joined by some incredible guest speakers who have devoted their lives to saving Scotland’s natural heritage. Enjoy the panel discussion and have your chance to put questions to our conservation speakers.
Megan McCubbin
Broadcaster and Naturalist
Prof. David MacDonald, CBE
Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of Oxford
Dr Helen Senn
Head of Conservation and Science Programmes at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland
Moderator: Chloe Dalton
Nature Writer and Foreign Policy Expert
Buy Your Tickets and Protect Scottish Wildcats
Grab your tickets at the link below, and play your part in the restoration of Scottish Wildcats.
100% of proceeds are allocated by TENT to Saving Wildcats to drive the next phase of the project. So, your ticket is your donation, and includes a welcome drink and snacks.
