WILDLIFE
At my favourite site the wildcats would just
suddenly appear on the scene, as if by magic. Rabbits often gave the first clue to their pres- ence. They would all stand up at full stretch or even use a boulder to get a better view. I discov- ered by pure chance one morning how they managed to arrive on scene. I was watching a large rabbit warren when suddenly a wildcat appeared from a hole under the boulders, with rabbits surging away like an exploding firework.
Cunning moves When hunting, the cats would move in spurts, stopping and starting, with no predictable direction adopted. This would carry on until an unsuspecting rabbit was spotted and it would stalk in until about five metres away and then suddenly rush in to quickly kill the prey. When spotted by the rabbits, the cat would adopt a relaxed stance with the tail up, as if commu- nicating to the rabbits ‘I know you know I am here so there is no danger’. However, on one occasion, I saw a wildcat gently saunter past some curious rabbits that had lowered their
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‘Suddenly the cat burst sideways, capturing one of the rabbits in its jaws’
guard. Suddenly the cat burst sideways, captur- ing one of the rabbits in its jaws. I have been able to watch the interaction
between wildcats and sheep. Where they co- exist, they seem to virtually ignore each other, and I have seen a wildcat walk right past a ewe with lambs and the ewe just carry on grazing after briefly glancing at the cat. However, at the den, I have seen a wildcat flare at a ewe with two lambs, resulting in the sheep turning and running away. It transpired that the wildcat had young kittens, which she allowed out to play later in that July morning. A few weeks later I found them again at a different den, but this time they were playing more robustly. Wildcat kittens, which have blue eyes and
a pointed tail early on, must be amongst the most attractive little animals one could watch playing. They are boldly striped and play with barely a sound. Wildcat kittens are normally born in late May or early June and first emerge about July. Kittens have been observed at other times of the year but may be the result of hybrid- isation, or losing a litter early on. When it comes to the classically portrayed
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