There are currently between 5000 and 7000 wild cats in Germany, and about 1000 of the shy forest dwellers roam through the Hessian forests. In the mountains in the northeast, in the Reinhardswald, the Knüll and the Kaufunger forest as well as in the Taunus mountains of Rheingau-, Hoch- and Hintertaunus currently live the most wildcats, said Lynn Sophie Anders, spokeswoman for the Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) Hesse, on Tuesday.

The conservationists are now expanding their search for the shy forest dweller, especially since the reintroduction of the wolf does not disturb, according to Anders. In the professional world, she explained, it is not known that wolves and wildcats have problems living together. Forestry forests cause more problems for the wildcat.

As expected, fewer wildcats have been discovered in southern Hesse in recent years than in the northern and densely wooded regions, as a map by the Hessian State Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology (HLNUG) shows. In the Odenwald there is still no proof that the velvet paw hunts for mice there. Earlier attempts to prove the existence of the wildcat in the Odenwald have failed, according to the BUND.

Signs of intact habitat

Ten years ago, conservationists around the cities of Bad König and Höchst had already used so-called batons – but without result, and another search in the Odenwald in 2018 could not prove the presence of the wildcat. "The last record of the species in the Hessian Odenwald dates back to 1900. As elsewhere, the wildcat fell victim to intensive hunting and deforestation over several decades," said Susanne Steib, head of the wildcat project at BUND Hessen.

Since 1952, wildcats have been protected throughout Germany, and the BUND Hessen, the Hegegemeinschaft Oberzent-Beerfelder Land, the Forestry Office Beerfelden and also the BUND from the Odenwaldkreis want to document the reintroduction of the shy animals in the region with the renewed search for the wildcat in the Odenwald. According to Tobias Kuhlmann from the conservancy, the cats with their high demands on the habitat are representative of many other forest inhabitants. This means that the habitat is intact where the wildcats resettle.

In order to find the cats, the BUND uses the aforementioned baits around Oberzent and Sensbachtal, which can be imagined as rough roof battens set up on the forest floor. The sticks are sprayed with valerian and attract the wildcats "almost magically", explained Harald Hoppe, spokesman for the BUND in the Odenwaldkreis.

The cats rub against the sticks and lose hair there. These are then collected and genetically analyzed at the Center for Wildlife Genetics by the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research. According to Hoppe, this makes it possible to determine beyond doubt whether a wildcat or other animal has rubbed against the hive. The hope that the search will be successful this time is great among the Hessian conservationists, because genetic evidence of the wildcats has already been discovered on the Baden-Württemberg side in the Eberbach area near the border of the two federal states.