Saturday 7 March 2020

Wildcat Haven Clashindarroch Forest Project In Private Eye

Independent conservation company Wildcat Haven have for some time been running a campaign to have tree felling in the Clashindarroch forest stopped. They have a huge online petition going and are apparently running a crowdjustice campaign to raise money for legal funding towards that objective.

This month's Private Eye ran an article which includes a section on the Clashindarroch forest campaign, and it seems the issue is far less clear cut than Wildcat Haven claim. You can read the article on Twitter HERE

The Wildcat Haven contention is essentially that the Clashindarroch forest is very possibly the last stronghold of the Scottish wildcat, and that tree felling is destroying their habitat. Which sounds perfectly reasonable, until you hear that there is an opposing view. That opposing view is held by Scottish Wildcat Action, the official Scottish wildcat conservation organisation.  In their view, felling creates open areas which wildcats prefer for hunting, and that controlled felling actually improves the habitat for wildcats. It is their view that stopping felling would create continuous canopy forest which would actually destroy wildcat habitat.

You can read an article on the subject written by Emma Rawling of Scottish Wildcat Action HERE which further explains their views. There is also an article by Forestry and Land Scotland which airs similar views HERE

So who is right? We are not experts in the field of wildcat habitat, but when you think about it, Clashindarroch forest was planted decades ago, and has for many years underdone selective felling. If felling destroys wildcat habitat, how come it is now a wildcat stronghold?

If the scientists at Scottish Wildcat Action are correct but Wildcat Haven still get their way and succeed in stopping felling, it will create a continuous forest canopy, which may destroy the habitat of what is possibly the very last remaining vestige of natural Scottish wildcats anywhere. We can't think that is a good plan if wildcat conservation is your aim.

Sunday 23 February 2020

Highland Titles Wildcat Rehabilitation Facility Can't Sex Cats

On the Highland Titles website on a page about Scottish wildcats they make the following claim. "Highland Titles have built and operate perhaps the finest wildcat rehabilitation facility in Europe.
We have staff and premises to deal with both injured wildcats and abandoned kittens."


You'd think that such an illustrious facility with such expertise would have little difficulty in correctly sexing cats, wouldn't you? Apparently they do. This is an extract of an email sent from Highland Titles to Graeme Taylor of Scottish Natural Heritage and Dr Roo Campbell of Scottish Wildcat Action.


This cat had been in the enclosure on their premises for over a year at this point. What kind of facility which claims to rehabilitate and deal with injured wildcats is not even competent in determining what sex they are? 

It also becomes apparent that because of the failure to correctly sex these cats, Highland Titles themselves consider one of the enclosures they built was unnecessary. That was built using money from their customers and it would seem has been wasted.

While we are here, we might also ask the question, so how many Scottish wildcats has this facility rehabilitated and released? The answer to that is, none, not one. The only animal ever in their possession which may possibly have been pure enough to be determined a Scottish wildcat, escaped from their care before it's identity could be determined by examination under sedation or genetic testing. This is the "wildcat" Highland Titles claim to have released. In our version of English, "escaped" and "released" have distinctly different meaning, and are not interchangeable.

This is an email form Dr Roo Campbell to Highland Titles after being informed the potential wildcat had gone missing.

 "The cat in that enclosure was potentially a wildcat based on the videos you sent (though we’d have wanted to have it inspected more closely under sedation as it might not be)"

The "perhaps the finest" claim seems to be, as is so often the case with Highland Titles, more than a bit of an exaggeration. We wouldn't call a facility which can't correctly sex the animals in it's care, and where the only animal in it's care which potentially may have been a Scottish wildcat escaped before proper identification while claiming it is definitely a wildcat and they released it, "perhaps the finest", would you?