Rescued lynx from Ukraine settles into new habitat

A wild cat centre in Kent has opened two purpose-built habitats for the animals in its care.

The Big Cat Sanctuary gave the public its first viewing of the Small Cat Rescue Centre and the Rusty-Spotted Cat Conservation Centre at its site in Smarden, near Ashford.

It featured an emotional milestone as Ursa, a Eurasian lynx rescued from war-torn Ukraine, took her very first steps on grass.

Managing director Cameron Whitnall was part of her rescue from the outskirts of Kyiv "in minus-15 conditions with air raid alarms going off and bomb threats" but added: "It's all worth it today."

Head of cats Ian Jones said he was pleased with Ursa's progress.

"Her new habitat is absolutely brilliant and she's come out straight away and started exploring," he said.

"She's showing really confident behaviours like sniffing, rolling, doing everything that we want to see from her."

The state-of-the-art facility is also home to three other small cats rescued from the Cat Survival Trust in Hertfordshire in January 2025.

Rhys the Eurasian lynx, Boson the fishing cat and Blob the bobcat will be living alongside Ursa in separate enclosures.

The Rusty-Spotted Cat Conservation Centre is the UK's largest habitat dedicated to the world's smallest wild cat.

Fully grown, the elusive, nocturnal predators can weigh as little as 900g, comparable in size to a red squirrel and smaller than a fully grown domestic cat.

The groundbreaking facility is designed to mimic the cats' native environments across India, Sri Lanka and Nepal and features three five-metre (16.4ft) high outdoor enclosures linked by elevated walkways to encourage natural roaming, alongside a large immersive indoor house and private breeding spaces.

To support a critical international breeding programme, the indoor facility integrates sophisticated welfare technology, including advanced thermal imaging cameras for non-invasive night-time monitoring, automated climate control systems, heat zones, specialist UV lighting and automated rainfall systems to replicate natural weather patterns.

The centre is currently home to resident male Kuda, with a female rusty-spotted cat scheduled to arrive later this year to begin the breeding initiative.

"These guys come from the rainforests in south east Asia and that habitat has been purposely built so that we can encourage breeding and set this cat up for success so that they can have multiple litters in there," said Jones.

"We can separate the kittens from their parents as well when they get to the natural age that they will leave their mum in the wild and go off and find their new homes, and for us it will contribute towards the really important endangered species breeding programme."

However, despite the rusty-spotted cat's diminutive appearance, Jones was keen to stress they would not make good pets.

"It's kind of like small cat syndrome, so the smaller they are, the feistier they seem to be," he said.

The sanctuary is open to the public for 10 days from 29 July for its annual Big Cat Fest.

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