Last April, I wrote about the ongoing effort to save the Scottish Wildcat. Today, I want to make you aware of an upcoming project to save the wildcats of mainland Europe. While there’s some debate over subspecies, these are the same species of wildcat as the ones in Scotland, and so they face pretty much the same threats – habitat destruction, interbreeding with feral cats, and disease from feral cats being the big ones. Even so, the degree to which these are problems varies across Europe, which is why it’s great that the European Wilderness Society is gearing up to do an awareness-raising campaign, starting in September of 2024, combined with an effort to collect information:

European Wilderness Society is currently working on a new LIFE project proposal – this time about the European wildcat. The main goal of LIFE Wildcat is to support and strengthen population development of the European wildcat across Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic. The status of the wildcat is already unfavourable; and one of the main threats to it are roadkills and human infrastructure that destroys the cat’s habitat.

Therefore, the project has the following objectives:

• Analyse habitat and connectivity features on landscape level for improved settling and dispersal of European wildcat
• Identify hotspots for anthropogenic mortality risks
• Survey of the degree of hybridisation
• Boost population development in sparsely occupied yet suitable habitats through reintroduction
• Centralise European wildcat data from current and previous efforts for a better and more coherent conservation approach
• Increase awareness on political and public levels for conservation efforts directed to European wildcat

To achieve these objectives, the project partners will:

• Train key stakeholder groups on necessary conservation techniques
• Protect key areas that provide suitable habitats for European wildcats
• Develop a map of habitat connectivity across project focus countries
• Identify roadkill hotspots and promote mitigation measures to reduce mortality risks
• Contribute to the establishment of a self-sustaining wildcat population in Austria
• Create a centralised data repository for EU-wide coordinated conservation activities

The project would start in September 2024 and last for 6 years.

They say they’re still looking people and organizations to sign statements of support, so if that sounds appealing or important to you, check them out at the link above!

The photo (uploaded to Wikimedia commons by Lviatour) is of a European Wildcat sitting on a rock and staring intently at the camera. Its got grey fir with hints of brown, and faint black stripes. Its tail has bolder black stripes, and a black tip. Its fur looks thick and soft, and its face is stripey. Its eyes are a pale blue-green.