Halle (dpa/sa) – Wildcats are increasingly feeling at home in Saxony-Anhalt. A further spread of the animals in the country and beyond to the northeast is possible in the future, said a spokesman for the State Office for Environmental Protection (LAU) on Saturday in Halle. An exact count of the individual wildcats is not possible. But the cats’ presence in certain areas shows that they are spreading further.
According to the LAU, the wildcat was seen more frequently in the core area of ??the population in the Harz Mountains. According to the LAU, the population last ranged from the Altmark to the state border with Saxony and Thuringia. The researchers suspect that fewer wild cats are dying than before because the winters are milder and there is less snow.
Adult wildcats also have few predators. Lynx, wolf or owl could be considered here. “For these species, if they occur at all in the same area, the wildcat is at most a very occasional prey,” the spokesman said. The main endangerment factor for cats is road traffic.
