I’m David Hetherington and I’m in charge of the Cairngorms Wildcat Project. I’ll be posting here regularly to keep you up to date with wildcat news from the Caingorms. I’ll be telling you about the developments in this unique project and what’s happening on the ground to help wildcats. Stay tuned!
29 August 2010 : Wildcat talk in Tomintoul on Thursday
Today it feels as if November has come a couple of months early to the Cairngorms. Northerly winds and driving rain make it a day for catching up with stuff in the office! But for those of you in the Tomintoul area needing to escape the worst of the weather, why not pop along to a talk about the Wildcat Project I'll be giving at 10 am this Thursday (2nd) at the Glenlivet Estate office in Tomintoul? Maybe see you there.
4 August 2010 : Free neutering of farm cats in the Cairngorms!
Cats Protection (CP) have launched a scheme whereby farmers and
crofters in the Cairngorms National Park can get farm cats neutered for
free during the month of August.
The charity supports the Cairngorms Wildcat Project by neutering both pet and feral cats, helping to prevent interbreeding, and thus
hybridisation, with endangered wildcats. It will have a stall tomorrow
at the Black Isle Show to inform people about their neutering work and
is encouraging Cairngorms farmers and crofters with unneutered cats to
visit them at the Show to register for a neutering voucher. Not only
does neutering help reduce the risk to the wildcat population, but it
prevents unwanted kittens (apparently an unneutered female domestic cat
can be responsible for 20,000 descendants in just five years!),
benefits the health of the cats themselves, and by helping to keep the
domestic cat population under control, reduces the impact on wildlife
species which are predated by cats.
Farmers not visiting the Show can call the CP national helpline on
03000 121212 to register for a voucher. CP operatives may also be able
to trap and transport the cats to the local vet for neutering before
returning them. This voucher scheme runs until the end of August.
The Cairngorms Wildcat Project will be represented at the Highland Field Sports
Fair at Moy, south of Inverness, on Friday and Saturday, where we'll be
located within the Scottish Gamekeepers Association's marquee. It
should be a great opportunity to talk to many gamekeepers about their
experiences with wildcats and let folks know what we're doing to
conserve them. Maybe see you there!
2 August 2010 : Intensive camera-trapping
Over the winter and spring this year Kerry Kilshaw from WildCRU at the University of Oxford's zoology department has been trialling intensive camera trapping as a method of determining presence and abundance of Scottish wildcats as part of a study funded by WildCRU and Scottish Natural Heritage. In cooperation with the Cairngorms Wildcat Project, Kerry set up 40 camera traps on an estate on the west side of the Cairngorms National Park, and trialled different methods of attracting wildcats to the cameras. As you can see from the photos below, she got some great shots of wildcats by using dead pheasants and partridges as bait. Nice work Kerry! Check out those tails...
For more information on wildcat camera trapping in the Cairngorms National Park, check out the September edition of BBC Wildlife magazine which should be hitting news-stands very shortly.
Photographs copyright Kerry Kilshaw, WildCRU
1 July 2010 : Camera trapping update
We've had a few interesting camera trap photos recently. I'd set up a cam in a deserted and disused steading in the north of the National Park in response to someone letting me know about a stripy cat they'd caught a glimpse of there. I must admit I was fully expecting it to be a tabby feral cat. However, within a few days I got several photos of the cat below, and its markings (such as its ringed tail without a stripe running down its length) suggest it is probably a wildcat hybrid. 
.
One of the gamekeepers at the Atholl Estate set up one of our camera traps at a log across a stream which he reckoned was being used as a natural bridge by some of the local wildlife, possibly a wildcat. However, so far, he's got lots of photos of several different pine martens running across the log. Intriguingly, the martens seem to have a one-way system as the vast majority of the photos show the martens going in one direction only. Presumably, there's another log further up- or downstream where they all come back the other way! The photo below was taken by one of our cams on the Glenlivet Estate.
As of tomorrow, myself and other members of the team will variously be
on hand over the course of the three days of the Scottish Game Fair at
Scone near Perth. We'll be at the Highland Tiger stall in the Game
& Wildlife Conservation Trust's marquee, so if you're around, pop in for a
chat.
23 June 2010 : Neutering feral cats in the Cairngorms National Park
Apologies for the lack of updating lately! I've been very busy recently with unspectacular administrative work, but there have also been some positive Project developments in the past month or so. I had a very productive meeting with enthusiastic representatives from all the Cats Protection volunteer branches which cover the Cairngorms National Park to discuss how best to intensify and expand the Trap Neuter & Return (TNR) of feral cats around settlements and farms in the Cairngorms National Park. This work should help a great deal in reducing the likelihood of feral cats and wildcats interbreeding and producing hybrid offspring. Feral cats taken in for neutering also get screened for potential fatal diseases such as feline leukaemia virus, so by intensifying TNR we may also help to reduce the prevalence of diseases which could seriously harm wildcats. The return of healthy, neutered cats to farms where they were caught means that they can continue their pest control function in the farm buildings without putting at risk the endangered wildcat population in the surrounding countryside. One of the things that was clear from the meeting we had, is that more volunteers will be required to assist with the TNR work so that it can be targetted at areas where wildcats are most at risk. So if you're interested in lending a hand with this, and gaining some valuable wildlife management experience at the same time, then watch this space for further details on how you can apply to be a volunteer.
