SUPERDAD- WE ARE LEARNING NEW THINGS ALL THE TIME

Hi All

We wanted to give you an update on the family of wildcats with the three beautiful kittens. As we said, and you have seen, no one has ever filmed a whole family of wildcats together. It has always been thought that males play no part in the rearing of the young. What we are finding is incredible, we are learning more and more about wildcat family life every time we check the cameras.

We are observing brand new behaviour that has not been documented in any of the scientific literature we can find. He is such a magnificent animal, just look at his bulk and his head. The cameras are showing us that not only is the male (we now call him Superdad), spending time with his family which obviously has great protective benefits, but he is also leading the kittens on foraging missions around the forest without the mother. He is taking them to different parts of his home range. It is astonishing and absolutely fascinating to have such a privileged insight into wildcat family life. You can see in this picture that Superdad is leading the way but the kittens are right on his shoulder. You can only see 2 kittens here but we have later footage of all 3 on other cameras so don’t worry.

This picture was taken towards the end of October and you can see just how much the kittens are growing and thriving. They are huge. They are also showing great markings as you can see by looking at the body striping of the one in foreground.

We will continue to document and monitor this family and keep learning the lessons they are teaching us.

They are giving us a powerful message. Wildcats have far more complex social and family lives than we ever imagined. The adults clearly form bonds, they clearly have overlapping territories and share  space far more than we thought. There is clearly social structure and interaction and that must exist on a landscape scale.

This is why it is vital that the free-living wildcat populations are not disturbed, that they can live and breed in peace and that they are not displaced or captured for a zoo. Just imagine the difference to these kittens if their father was captured or displaced. This also supports our strong argument that the Clashindarroch should not be turned into an industrialised landscape for a windfarm. Can you imagine the disturbance impact during the construction phase with all that heavy machinery? The loss of habitat is serious enough, but the disturbance ramifications of the construction and operational phases are perhaps as great, if not even greater for the forest as a whole. Wildcats are particularly prone to disturbance which is why they are supposed to be strictly protected, including their den sites and even resting places.

What is obvious from the science and our observations is that whole landscape/ forest level impacts need to be considered, because if they are not, then entire complex, social structures can be disturbed, which will undoubtedly lead to displacement and crucially a reduction in breeding success.

We hope you enjoy seeing Superdad and his kittens. They fill us with joy every time.

If you want to find out more about this family and our work then please visit:

www.wildcathaven.com

More news to come so keep watching.

Thanks as always

The Wildcat Haven Team