Touty
Well-known member
Hi all,
Today, coming back home with a friend after some survey work at lunchtime we'd just crossed the river Timavo near Trieste (NE Italy), just outside a large paper factory and very close (500m) to the coast we saw what we immediately recognised as a wildcat dead by the road. It's only the second I've seen dead in 15 years in Italy.
We pulled in immediately and went back. We were immediately joined by a police car that had done a U-turn behind us. 'Where are you going?' they asked. 'To pick up the dead wildcat'. 'So were we.'
Anyway... to cut a long story short - the animal is a young male wildcat and at this time of year they are often knocked down as they go in search of females. There have always been wildcats in our area but numbers seem to be rising and so far there has not been the dreaded hybridisation with domestic cats. Numbers are rising and they seem to be spreading into the lowlands.
One odd thing. Last week I saw wildcat running UP the road in front of my car close to my village (about 10km from the dead animal). I've never seen a domestic cat do that - they cross roads. Talking to the policemen, they had seen a wildcat on a drystone wall beside the road on the other side of the same village in the same week while on patrol on the Italian-Slovene border.
Anyway. I attach the pictures (stills from a video). You can see the wonderful black stripe along the back and the fat black-tipped ringed tail, the very long torso and legs, broad skull and small ears. What an animal
Today, coming back home with a friend after some survey work at lunchtime we'd just crossed the river Timavo near Trieste (NE Italy), just outside a large paper factory and very close (500m) to the coast we saw what we immediately recognised as a wildcat dead by the road. It's only the second I've seen dead in 15 years in Italy.
We pulled in immediately and went back. We were immediately joined by a police car that had done a U-turn behind us. 'Where are you going?' they asked. 'To pick up the dead wildcat'. 'So were we.'
Anyway... to cut a long story short - the animal is a young male wildcat and at this time of year they are often knocked down as they go in search of females. There have always been wildcats in our area but numbers seem to be rising and so far there has not been the dreaded hybridisation with domestic cats. Numbers are rising and they seem to be spreading into the lowlands.
One odd thing. Last week I saw wildcat running UP the road in front of my car close to my village (about 10km from the dead animal). I've never seen a domestic cat do that - they cross roads. Talking to the policemen, they had seen a wildcat on a drystone wall beside the road on the other side of the same village in the same week while on patrol on the Italian-Slovene border.
Anyway. I attach the pictures (stills from a video). You can see the wonderful black stripe along the back and the fat black-tipped ringed tail, the very long torso and legs, broad skull and small ears. What an animal
