There was great excitement in early November when the trail cam in the garden captured the above image in our garden. Could this be a wildcat? I posted the image on social media and was contacted by Saving Wildcats who wanted to know more. Since then I've been in touch with Jamie Sneddon, the Saving Wildcats Project Officer. I told him that we have woods on three sides of the house and feed birds, red squirrels, and rabbits in the garden. He was particularly interested in the rabbits. "Rabbits usually equal cats".
Twelve days later the trail cam captured more cat images. I sent these to Jamie who reckons it's a different cat - "if you have rabbits you’re likely to have multiple cats" - and definitely a hybrid wildcat/domestic cat.
I then moved the trail cam to see if I could get any larger pictures. I didn't but I did get cats on more nights, three in succession.
I'm very interested to see what Jamie Sneddon makes of these. And what the trail cam picks up next.
Great pics Chris. We've had 'hybrid' wildcats on the site at Aviemore where there are loads of rabbits. There are also quite a few ducks and some of the ducklings were taken over the summer. One of the cats crossed the road in front of me in broad daylight, looked straight at me at then slowly wandered off. They're definitely becoming 'urbanized' like foxes.
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