BREEDING SEASON UNDERWAY AND LOTS OF ACTIVITY
Hi All
Belated Happy New Year to each and every one of you. We can’t believe it is already the middle of January, it has been a very busy and productive start to the year.
This is our main field work time and we have cameras set and baited. There has been a lot of snow which is useful as it allows us to find wildcat tracks and position our cameras in the optimum positions. It is the start of the mating season and as you can imagine there will be significant movement, particularly by the males as they seek out females and defend their precious territories. Wildcat populations have structure, individuals know each other and have hierarchies. By following tracks in the snow it is leading us to some very exciting locations. The picture here may at first not look like much, but to us (and the Wildcats) it is loaded with information. The area around the base of the trunk is covered in tracks and if you look at the snow it stained yellow, as multiple wildcats have been marking this boundary site with urine. If you look at the bark, you can also see that it has been scraped off as the wildcats scratch and rub their scent onto it. It is clearly a key signalling area for wildcats and so we have cameras set in the hope of catching the action.
It is so exciting to walk in a forest where you know there are wildcats and these kinds of finds are fascinating and extremely useful for our ongoing monitoring work. Let’s all hope that there is another very successful breeding season and we have yet more wild kittens to show you later in the year.
It is now 2025 and we have been campaigning to save the Clashindarroch for almost 7 years. The windfarm still isn’t built, the forest is still there and so clearly are the wildcats. So, we continue our fight with renewed vigour and determination. Let’s hope that this is the year these destructive plans windfarm plans are finally stopped. We will give a fuller update on the campaign shortly.
We are also really excited to be welcoming a Swedish journalist over. We are finalising dates and their travel plans now. We will show them everything and let’s hope it carries on building the momentum of our campaign work in Sweden.
And finally, we know how many you are waiting for the next batch of Wildcat tartan scarves. They are almost ready and we hope to start taking orders in the next week, so keep watching. We have had fantastic feedback from the people who bought them in the first batch and it is a product we are very proud of.
So, as you can see Wildcat Haven is off to a flying start and lets hope for a very successful year for the magnificent Scottish wildcat on all fronts.
As always you can find out more at
Many thanks as always
Emily and a very motivated Wildcat Haven Team