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!
13 January 2012 : Cairngorms wildcats featured across Europe
Last year a crew from the Franco-German TV channel, ARTE, came to the Deeside area of the Cairngorms National Park to film a documentary on aspects of the local cultural and natural heritage of the area. The programme focuses on the Farquharson clan and ties this in with, amongst other things, local castles, Highland Games, deer and moorland management, as well as camera trapping for wildcats, the Farquharson clan’s totemic animal. The programme has been broadcast and repeated several times this week in France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal and Israel. For the next few days the programme will also be available online on the ARTE website here. The narration is in either French or German (you can choose your preferred language on the bottom right of the video screen) and you might be able to catch a few words of English from local characters before they get dubbed over. There are two sections on wildcats - one around 13 minutes and the other at around 30 minutes.
10 January 2012 : Camera trapping for wildcats
Happy New Year to all! You may have seen a wildcat story in the news just after New Year about a wildcat camera trapping study, which was carried out by Kerry Kilshaw of WildCRU in the Cairngorms National Park (see here for the latest coverage on the BBC website). Her fieldwork was part-funded by one of our Project partners, SNH and their commissioned report on Kerry's fieldwork can now be downloaded from their website here. There are a few tips there on how to increase your chances of catching a wildcat on your camera trap!
20 December 2011 : From Highland Tiger to Scaredy Cat!
We have received some exceptional video footage, which was taken by a local woman in the Strathspey part of the Cairngorms National Park. It shows a female Scottish wildcat going about her business hunting for voles along a secluded woodland edge. Unknown to her, however, a female roe deer has her fawn hidden in the grass nearby and her protective maternal instincts kick in! You can view the footage on the Highland Tiger YouTube channel here.
This is very likely to be same cat which was filmed for the BBC's Springwatch programme at the same location in 2008. Some of that footage can be viewed on the BBC website here. Enjoy!
19 December 2011 : Interesting cat from Deeside
Here are some photos taken on a camera trap set up by a Cairngorms National Park ranger in Deeside. The first photo shows an interesting-looking cat feeding on the dead cockerel bait. The thick ringed tail and dorsal stripe stopping at the base of the tail suggest this cat has wildcat ancestry. However the blotches on the flanks and the double dorsal stripe suggest the cat may also have some domestic genes too. This is probably quite a young animal as it is small compared to the pine marten which visits the same bait later.
5 December 2011 : 2012 Calendars on sale
For anyone still looking for an interesting wee Christmas or New Year present, you might be interested to know that professional photographer, Trevor D. Russell, has recently compiled a lavish 2012 calendar consisting entirely of portrait images of wildcats at the Scottish Deer Centre. Trevor has generously agreed to donate 30% of the profits of sales of his calendars to the Highland Tiger Fund, which is administered by one of the partners of the Cairngorms Wildcat Project - the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (Registered charity number: SC004064). Donations to the Highland Tiger Fund will be used to further the conservation and research of Scottish wildcats in the Cairngorms National Park.
His hand-printed calendars are giclee printed on A4 265gsm premium matte card using professional equipment and utilising archival paper and pigment-based ultrachrome ink for certified 200-year longevity. Trevor informs me that the paper and print quality is sufficiently high that, that at the end of the calendar year, each image could be saved and framed as an individual print.
The calendars cost £9.99 plus postage, although for two copies the price drops to £8.99 each but postage remains the same. To view the calendar images visit the gallery on Trevor’s site here. Calendars can be ordered via the link near the foot of this page here.
