Footprints in the snow – wildcat captured on camera

Published on Tuesday 5 April 2011 11:53

A RARE wildcat sighting outside its Highland heartland has been captured on film in the grounds of a historic castle in Aberdeenshire.

The striking image of the "Highland tiger" was captured by one of the wildlife surveillance cameras set up on Craigfall Hill in the grounds of the Leith Hall Estate, near Huntly, which is owned by the National Trust for Scotland.

The wildcat was photographed on the cameras, funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, on 12 March while snow still blanketed the ground.

There are only an estimated 400 "Highland tigers" left in the wild, and their few remaining strongholds are confined to remote, wooded parts of the Highlands. This rare sighting in Aberdeenshire has delighted conservationists.

Rob Dewar, the nature conservation advisor to the national trust, said: "Leith Hall nestles below open moorland and plantation forests deep in the Aberdeenshire countryside and is a haven for wildlife.

"Sightings of Scottish wildcats had been reported on Craigfall Hill, but was it really here? That is why we decided to set up the new wildlife surveillance cameras in the hope of catching the Highland tiger on camera."

David Hetherington, the project manager for the Cairngorms Wildcat Project, described the sighting of the wildcat as "significant."