Wildcat

A friend and a great nature conservation enthusiast Jiri Sochor recently (2019/20) informed and together with VLS published a report that a wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) permanently inhabited the Doupov mountains and subsequently approached me with the idea of mutual cooperation. There was no point in thinking about it at all - in the second half of February 2020 we installed first "trap" together and soon the first harvest was waiting for us - the harvest was great. Judge for yourself!

Wildcat is an extremely interesting but very little studied creature, which should be properly presented ... photographs, facts, but also data directly from the field will hopefully only help. Unfortunately it´´ s not only a pleasant spectacle... more bellow.

These images, and in fact the whole project as such, can work only thanks to the targeted monitoring of the possible occurrence of felines, which is carried out by the Military Forests and Estates of the Czech Republic, s.p., s.p. since 2019 and is contractually provided by the organization RYS OSTROVID z.ú. 

Extensive and successful monitoring of wildcats in Doupov eventually resulted in efforts to use GPS telemetry. On Monday, February 24, 2025, the first wildcat was fitted with a telemetric collar, which will map its movements in detail in this area. It was a male and was named Matěj after the name in the calendar, it weighed 5135 g and its age was estimated at 4–5 years.

You can find more about the wildcat, the project and pictures in the book WILDCAT!