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https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260112-rare-images-of-europes-ghost-cat>
“In 2020, wildlife photographer Vladimír Čech Jr was trudging through the snow
in a military zone in the Doupov Mountains, a remote and rugged area in the
Czech Republic. His goal: to take photos of the European wildcat, a species so
elusive, it had been thought to be extinct in several European regions.
"The wildcat is a rare creature living a life full of riddles," says Čech of
the wildcat, which looks a bit like a stouter, bushier-tailed version of a
tabby housecat, with its own distinctive pattern.
Once thought to have vanished from the Czech Republic in the 20th Century,
wildcats had been documented in the Doupov Mountains in the late 2010s by
simple trail cameras – but no one had ever taken high-quality images of them in
the area.
In recent years, scientists and photographers using camera traps have also
spotted the wildcat in other parts of Europe, where its elusiveness may have
helped it secretly survive the historical persecution by hunters that erased
other wild species, such as the lynx. There are thought to be about 140,000
European wildcats (
Felis silvestris), spread across more than two dozen
countries. Reliable estimates are difficult because the cat is so shy: in some
places where it was considered lost, such as Austria, camera traps have proven
its presence.
"[The wildcat] is considered 'the ghost of the forests' because it's very, very
elusive, and it's hard to predict where it can be spotted," says Andrea De
Giovanni, an Italian biologist and wildlife photographer who shot a video of a
wildcat in Chiapporato, an abandoned village in the Apennine mountains in
Italy, in 2020.
Based on his observations, De Giovanni suspects the wildcat moves less
predictably than other species, making it harder to spot: "Other animals tend
to follow the same trails through the forest. The wildcat goes wherever she
wants to."”
Via Rhysy and Susan ****
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*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
