Purr-fect for wildcats return after 100 years

Wildcats could make a comeback in England after a two-year study found there was enough habitat and widespread local support for their reintroduction.

- with Sue Wilkinson

Conservationists said the South West contains sufficient woodland connected by other suitable habitat to support a thriving population of wildcats - which were last seen in Devon more than 100 years ago.

Independent research found that up to 80 per cent of people in the region were positive towards the reintroduction of the UK's most threatened mammals to an area where they once roamed.

It also found wildcats posed no significant risk to existing endangered wildlife population such as bats and hazel dormice and no threat to people, pets or lambs - while poultry could be protected in the same way as from foxes.