Images from camera traps in the České Švýcarsko National Park showed an animal never before seen in this area. This is a wild cat, which belongs to the rarest species of our fauna. The wild cat disappeared from Czech nature many decades ago, now it is found only in a few places – for example in the Doupovské hory.
Czech Switzerland
18:28 November 10, 2023
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The zoologist of the national park needs to obtain a fur sample to confirm the presence of this animal on the territory of the park – its analysis will then be taken care of by the Czech University of Agriculture, with which the park cooperates intensively.
Camera traps in the České Švýcarsko National Park captured an animal never seen before – a rare wild cat
“We certainly won’t reveal the exact location, but we can say that we are in the inner part of the park, relatively close to the quiet area,” explains park spokesman Tomáš Salov and continues:
“We have a fairly dense network of camera traps – sometimes we have really interesting captures there. Now we have a huge surprise because one of those traps last year released photos of a cat.”
We stand above the stream and slowly go down. A camera trap is placed on one of the spruces, roughly a meter high.
Park Administration zoologist Martin Valášek started looking at pictures of the device, which is in the place where the wild cat was photographed.
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“We need to find out if it was just a migrating animal or a permanent settlement by that cat. That’s why we brought goat drops here – their aroma is very attractive to cats,” the zoologist explains.
The zoologist applied the goat drops to a stick stuck nearby. If the cat were to rub against a stick soaked in goat’s droppings, there would be a good chance of getting its pulled hairs from it, which would then travel for DNA analysis.
According to the photos, the animal has a pattern that is typical for a wild cat – but the results of genetic analysis could show whether it is a purebred animal or an animal crossed with a domestic cat, as is often the case with the wild cat population in Scotland, for example.
Daniela Pilařová
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