CONSTANT VIGILANCE IS WORKING
The Clashindarroch is a massive forest, most of which is owned by the government agency, Forestry and Land Scotland. However, some tracts have been sold off and are in private hands. Of course, the wildcats that roam this forest do not know the boundary lines and they utilise the whole of the forest regardless of who owns it.
It is currently the breeding season and now females should be pregnant, carrying their precious kittens and identifying safe dens sites. As you know. until we exerted pressure on the government, they had logged during the breeding season, but this is no longer happening which we take as a very big win.
However, we are not complacent and we constantly monitor as much of the forest as possible. There had been no logging whatsoever until last week, when our main fieldworker heard the sound of harvesting machinery. Any disturbance at this time of year could lead to miscarriages in the females. So, as you can imagine we immediately acted and contacted the local council for information on any felling licenses. They referred us to the right bodies to contact which we duly did. Our investigations found that the logging was taking place on private land but still part of the Clashindarroch area as a whole. It was in the vicinity of where we had captured a young wildcat on camera, strongly suggesting that the site was within a breeding territory. After further investigation, we found out who was doing the logging and contacted them, conveying our deep concerns and that their activities would potentially be illegal. Thankfully and to our great relief, they immediately stopped all work and it hasn’t started up again. We will of course keep watching.
If it wasn’t for our monitoring, the felling and disturbance would still be taking place with potentially awful consequences. Again, we take this as a win for the Clashindarroch wildcats.
As we always, say, these wildcats deserve the right to live and raise their kittens in peace. Surely that isn’t too much to ask.
We are totally committed to saving this population and it is our grass roots, community driven, boots on the ground approach, that allows this to happen. The Scottish Wildcat can and will be saved in the wild where it belongs.
Much more news to come and we remain on high alert for any disturbance at this most crucial time in the breeding season.
Visit our website to find out more and thanks so much for your invaluable support:
Very Best Wishes as always
The Wildcat Haven Team.