Ooh, thank you! I feel like a proper catsite member now. I wasn't a Girl Guide long enough to get any badges but this more than makes up for it.
Yeah, 35 is the lowest estimate, with the highest estimate being 400 but I seriously doubt there are anywhere near that number. Until recently wildcats weren't really on the conservationists' radar and were mainly thought to only exist in a few pockets in the Cairngorms (central and eastern highlands). This meant that in our north west peninsular of Morvern in the 1990s & 2000s there weren't thought to be any wildcats at all. Whereas in fact, the population was comparatively healthy with around a dozen recorded sightings by two wildlife expert friends, who were mapping secret sea eagle nests and various other fauna & flora. My mum was the only Cat Protection outreach person for the whole peninsular and I truly believe the work she did trapping & neutering ferals kept the wildcat population in that area alive. Thankfully, wildcats have gained more interest in the conservation world and action is being taken to rescue them. And, Morvern has been given priority status as a known hotspot for sightings! This makes me incredibly proud. Even more so in the knowledge that we were simply doing right by all the cats in the neighbourhood and our amateur conservation has never been recognised. It just goes to show what one crazy cat woman (mum had up to 16 cats in those days) and her sidekick can achieve by TNR.
However, most Scottish people don't even realise we have an indigenous wildcat population, and educating people to be responsible cat owners is a monumental task. In rural areas many people think it perfectly ok to let their pet cats have litters only to put the unneutered kittens out to stray. And to make matters worse, many game-keepers don't realise what wildcats look like and shoot them as ferals, or kill them in snares. All this is making me pine for the Scottish Highlands, sigh.
Yeah, 35 is the lowest estimate, with the highest estimate being 400 but I seriously doubt there are anywhere near that number. Until recently wildcats weren't really on the conservationists' radar and were mainly thought to only exist in a few pockets in the Cairngorms (central and eastern highlands). This meant that in our north west peninsular of Morvern in the 1990s & 2000s there weren't thought to be any wildcats at all. Whereas in fact, the population was comparatively healthy with around a dozen recorded sightings by two wildlife expert friends, who were mapping secret sea eagle nests and various other fauna & flora. My mum was the only Cat Protection outreach person for the whole peninsular and I truly believe the work she did trapping & neutering ferals kept the wildcat population in that area alive. Thankfully, wildcats have gained more interest in the conservation world and action is being taken to rescue them. And, Morvern has been given priority status as a known hotspot for sightings! This makes me incredibly proud. Even more so in the knowledge that we were simply doing right by all the cats in the neighbourhood and our amateur conservation has never been recognised. It just goes to show what one crazy cat woman (mum had up to 16 cats in those days) and her sidekick can achieve by TNR.
However, most Scottish people don't even realise we have an indigenous wildcat population, and educating people to be responsible cat owners is a monumental task. In rural areas many people think it perfectly ok to let their pet cats have litters only to put the unneutered kittens out to stray. And to make matters worse, many game-keepers don't realise what wildcats look like and shoot them as ferals, or kill them in snares. All this is making me pine for the Scottish Highlands, sigh.
