This was posted earlier by the Scottish Wildcat Haven -thanks to Hayley de Ronde for forwarding.
FINLAY’S REHABILITATION ENCLOSURE COMPLETED
We are delighted to announce that our wildcat rehabilitation enclosure is now complete and Finlay is now happily living in it, in preparation for a return to the wild.
A lot of thought went into this before we started, as this facility will last at least 25 years and will not just help Finlay, but any future cats rescued. We therefore wanted to get it right.
It has a number of crucial features:
Contains natural vegetation to allow natural behaviours.
Is permeable to birds and small mammals which can freely move through it, allowing Finlay an opportunity to develop crucial hunting skills.
Contains multiple dens sites as wildcats use more than one den in the wild.
Has different areas of cover and zones to give the opportunity for maximum behavioural enrichment.
Built using a galvanised tubular steel system which allows flexibility. It can be added to or split up, if we get multiple animals at short notice.
The fencing is dug 2 feet into the ground to prevent cats digging out and animals like foxes and badgers digging in.
Is in a remote location to prevent exposure to people.
It is not on public view
It is away from roads and so prevents habituation to vehicles.
It has been a huge amount of work and we have had tractors, diggers, and up to 6 people working on site at any one time, but we are delighted with the end result and hope you are too.
Most importantly, Finlay seems to approve too and is thoroughly enjoying himself. He is now living in the enclosure full time, which is a crucial step on his journey back to the wild. We will put up some recent pictures and footage of him in the coming days, so keep watching.
Here are some picture of the construction process and finished enclosure on the news section of our website:
Massive thanks to all of you who contributed to our crowd funder and follow our work. As usual this couldn’t have happened without your support.
Thanks again.
The Wildcat Haven team and Finlay
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