Meet Finnigan! He is currently living at wildcat ridge sanctuary. Finnigan was a former pet, and as many owners come to realize, wildcats were not made to be pets. His previous owners were keeping him in their small apartment, and when Finnigan saw his chance to escape, he ran for his life. He was found […]
Tag: Wildcats
Scotland changes course to save its last native wildcats
Great Britain has lost its entire suite of top land predators over the past few thousand years: wolves (Canis lupus), brown bears (Ursus arctos) and lynx (Lynx lynx) have all vanished from the island, largely due to habitat loss, hunting and persecution. Now it’s on the verge of losing a much smaller one, and its […]
Where the wild things are: a trip to Romania’s southern mountains
From this pile of logs onwards, we need to be completely silent,” says Georg Messerer, our guide through Romania’s southern Carpathians. His head cocks 45 degrees as a bird starts chirping. “Nuthatch,” he whispers, reaching for his binoculars. “And two red deer.” Georg directs our gaze to a row of apple trees, where sure enough, […]
Wild beaver numbers surge to 1,000 across Scotland’s southern Highlands
Wild beavers have colonised lochs and rivers across the southern Highlands of Scotland after a sharp surge in their numbers. A survey by NatureScot, the government conservation agency, estimates 1,000 beavers now live in the wild, reaching rivers north of Dundee in the east, westwards to Crianlarich, north of Loch Lomond, and south to Stirling […]
Wildcats return to Netherlands after centuries’ absence
They disappeared centuries ago, but wildcats have returned to the forests of the southern Netherlands, local conservationists have said. The wildcat, which has longer legs and a flatter head than its domestic cousin, disappeared from modern-day Dutch territories in the middle ages as a result of hunting and forest clearance. The return of the animal, […]
Scottish legal battle begins over licences to shoot beavers
Wildlife campaigners are suing Scotland’s nature conservation agency for allowing farmers to kill wild beavers, arguing that it is in breach of its duties to protect vulnerable species. Trees for Life, a charity that campaigns for rewilding, has accused NatureScot of failing to protect beavers and insists the animals should be humanely trapped and relocated […]
Researchers take up the cause of the mysterious and maligned Chaco eagle
Fénix, a female Chaco eagle, lived at San Rafael Zoo in Mendoza province, Argentina, until the zoo shut down in 2016. She was later transferred to the Buenos Aires Ecopark, an old zoo that had been converted into a research center, hospital and shelter for animals without a destination. There, she began a difficult training […]
Gone fishing: the fight to save one of the world’s most elusive wild cats
For more than a decade, wildlife biologist Tiasa Adhya has spent many a day (and night) in a small wooden boat, silently gliding through dense vegetation in the wetlands and mangroves of West Bengal, scanning the banks for signs of a rarely seen wild cat – the fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus). “Fishing cats are fascinating […]