The wildcat has reappeared in Belarus after a 90-year absence. This information is posted on the website of the public association "Aхова птушак Бацькаўшчыны" (APB).
The wildcat has reappeared in Belarus after a 90-year absence. This information is posted on the website of the public association "Aхова птушак Бацькаўшчыны" (APB).
According to Valery Dombrovsky, Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Molecular Zoology of the Scientific and Practical Centre for Bioresources of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, a wildcat was photographed by an automatic camera in the Polessye State Radiation-Ecological Reserve in the former settlement of Rozhava (Narovlya District). Despite the low quality of the night shooting, the photo clearly shows the main identifying features of the species: large size, long hind foot, and a massive tail with five distinct black stripes. The wildcat has a body length and height at the withers similar to a raccoon dog, and is only slightly inferior to a fox in these parameters.
This species was considered extinct in Belarus. In the 18th-19th centuries, there was a significant decline in the wildcat population and fragmentation of its habitat. The last specimen was obtained in the winter of 1927 in the Borisov District of the Minsk Region.
The correct identification of the species of the animal captured on camera was confirmed by two well-known Ukrainian teriologists. "We can say that after a 90-year absence, the wildcat has returned to Belarusian land. We hope that this is not a stray individual and its appearance in the reserve is not a coincidence, just as the appearance of the lynx, bear, Przewalski's horse, and many other species there was not a coincidence, having gone from their first registration in the reserve to the creation of stable local populations," said Valery Dombrovsky.
To save the wildcat in Germany at the end of the 20th century, reintroduction efforts were successfully carried out. Thanks to this, and perhaps due to some intra-population reasons, the species' numbers began to grow locally. Thus, the wildcat began to appear in the Netherlands and Austria, and its numbers increased in France, Switzerland, and Transcarpathia. In Ukraine, in recent decades, an expansion of the species to the east has been observed. According to current data, the wildcat is now recorded far beyond its usual Carpathian range, throughout the forest-steppe zone of Ukraine, up to the left bank of the Dnieper. It is likely that this eastward movement of the wildcat has also affected Belarus.
The European wildcat (Felis silvestris) is a wild animal once widespread in the deciduous and mixed forests of Europe. It differs from its closest relative, the domestic cat, in its larger size, fierce disposition, and unsociable nature. In addition to overall size, the most important external features are considered to be the greater length of the hind foot, the presence of black spots on the inner side of the paws, and the shape and colour of the tail: the wildcat's tail is wide, blunt, as if cut off at the end, with three to five distinct black stripes, one of which is terminal.