Gießen (dpa/lhe) – Researchers at the University of Gieen will be tracking wildcats using GPS tracking for years to come. The coronavirus pandemic delayed the project because the animals for the study could not be equipped with GPS transmitter collars as planned last year: “In lockdown, we missed the mating season during which the wildcats Valerian Teresa Nava of Wildlife Research told the Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fishes group at the clinic. We had to make up for it this year. The investigation is now expected to run until March 2022.
In their project, which officially began in late November 2019, scientists are tracking 15 feral cats and their paths in the Lahn-Dill district. It aims to investigate the use of space by animals in the area of roads. Traffic is seen as a source of greatest danger to them. In addition, the two found animals have been observed for the first time. They were fed up with the staff of the Opel Zoo in Kronberg im Taunus and were released in the autumn of 2020. “The extent to which animals released into the wild are reintegrating has not been investigated,” Nava said.
According to the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND), the number of feral cats in Hesse is developing positively. The strictly protected animals re-dwell in almost all large forested areas of the state such as those in Taunus, Rothbergbirge, Kellerwald, Spessart and Ron, as the association lists in a message. BUND estimates that there are about 6,000 to 8,000 feral cats nationwide.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210822-99-924679 / 2
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