The muridae family.

Part two the yellow-necked mouse.

Not only does the yellow- necked mouse resemble a large,sandy coloured wood mouse, but it is very much like the wood mouse in its behaviour. Both mice are strictly nocturnal,with the big ears and eyes of creatures that need to pick up in the dark the faint sound or slight movement that warns them of approaching danger, and both climb well and often search for food among high branches. Both are found in woods, hedgerows and gardens. This seems to contradict a basic biological principle that no two animals can live in the same place and share the same food supply without one ultimately displacing the other. The yellow-necked mouse might be expected to become dominant as it is large, but it is the wood mouse that occurs over most of Britain. Yellow-necked mouse occur in the south, the welsh borders and in some parts of the midlands. Where they do occur, yellow necked mouse may increase to considerable numbers and then inexplicably disappear a year or two later. In parts of the south east, where yellow-necked mice can be quite common, they often go into peoples gardens and even their houses in autumn, perhaps seeking a dry,sheltered place for the winter. Yellow-necked mouse looks very much like a wood mouse, but it is distinguished by its distinct yellow collar, it is also bigger and heavier than the wood mouse,and its sandy brown coat has more orange on the flanks. In total the yellow-necked mouse is about four inched in length, with its tail being as long or longer again. Better climbers than the wood mouse, the yellow-necked mouse are more likely to be found in an attic, they may also be found at the top of a tree searching for new buds. The record they have been found at is ten meters. Like wood mice, yellow necked mice eat mainly seeds and fruit, such as acorns,hazel nuts and blackberries. In summer they also feed on insects and small animals such as snails and spiders. Their nest of grass and leaves is made underground within the burrow. There are five or more babies in a litter, they emerge from the nest when they are about eighteen days old. They rarely live for more that two years in the wild.

Scottish wildcat.

Final part.

A relatively new charity, the Scottish wildcat association has a range of projects, including the establishment of a wildcat haven and captive breeding to boost numbers and the long term survival of this magical animal. Wildcats also have the same range of vocalisations as domestic cats, including purring,meowing,hissing and growling. Except during the mating season, they tend to be quiet animals, vocalising only when they are close to each other. The wildcat is extremely wary of humans, and tends to avoid approaching human settlements. Legends of cats hanging from tree branches by a hook at the end of their tail, dropping onto passing crofters and tearing out their throats are the stuff of fantasy, left over from the middle ages suspicion of cats as agents of witches and maintained through the Victorian era to fuel and justify the persecution of the cats.

The nest building treasure hunt.

Have you ever stopped to consider all the materials a bird must collect for its nest? Take a blackbirds shopping list. The blackbird will use fine grass for the lining of the nest, along with over one hundred sticks that are not to brittle to make the nest. Along with these materials the blackbird will also use straw for the cup of the nest, many beakfuls of moss and some damp mud will also be used to hold the nest together. Other garden birds need feathers, rootlets, spider silk, animal fur and lichens. Will they find what they need in your garden? It doesn`t mean that you have to be untidy- just leave little piles of suitable materials for birds to find rather than burning or binning them.

Honey bee- the queen`s role.

The queen bee presides over a colony of about 50,000 sterile females, known as workers, and 300 males known as drones. The functions of the queen are to lay eggs and maintain cohesion among the other members of the colony. She mates several times, and stores sperm in her body for the rest of her life. She uses it to fertilise most of her eggs, which will develop into either workers or queens. If she lays unfertilised eggs they will develop into drones. The worker bees decide whether fertilised eggs become workers or queens by controlling the food they give to the larvae. If a larvae is fed nothing but royal jelly, a protein secretion from the workers mouths, it will become a queen. But while the reigning queen is active she gives off a substance which inhibits the workers from producing more queens. The queen can live for up to five years. Drones exist simply to mate with a queen, and several from different colonies assemble on fine days to attract virgin queens. When the mated queen returns to the hive from her nuptial flight the drones are denied access and left defenceless to die. Most honey bee`s in Britain live in man made hives, but colonies are quite able to flourish in trees or old buildings. From October to April the hibernating bees steadily eat their store of winter food, moving up through the combs as a cluster. As the queen`s life draws to an end, she leaves the hive in May in a swarm, or dies in the hive.

Scottish wildcat.

Part three.

Wildcats typically breed only once a year, from January to March, with most births between April and May. Litters of kittens are typically between one and five. Males tend to hold larger territories than females, and their ranges often overlap with three to six neighbouring females. Wildcats of both sexes mark their ranges by depositing faeces in prominent locations and by leaving scent marks through urine spraying, cheek rubbing and scratching the ground. Female wildcats come into heat once a year for a short period in January or February and advertise their readiness for mating through scent marking and night time caterwauling miaows. If a male is in the locality, the  pair come together for a brief mating before parting forever. The wildcat is a carnivore, most of its prey consists of small mammals, mainly rodents and rabbits. Wildcats are less fearful of water than domestic cats and are thought to occasionally fish, dipping their paws into shallow burns or loch edges to try and scoop out passing fish.

Scottish wildcat.

Part two.

Originally a forest creature, Scotland's heavy deforestation has forced the wildcat to evolve and utilise everything available to it. They require some degree of cover from which to stalk or ambush their prey, but almost any form of cover is suitable, including scrubland, rocky terrain and agricultural land. The main threats to the survival of the wildcat are hybridisation, and competition with feral domestic cats. Other significant threats are on-going habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation in some areas. Road kill and in some areas, persecution are also problems.

Scottish wildcat.

Part one.

The wildcat is, pound for pound, one of the most impressive predators in the world. The secretive feline used to roam across the UK, just as the lynx and the wolf once did, but today, there are fewer than four hundred wildcats remaining in the sottish highlands. They may look a little like your pet cat but they are tough, untameable and sometimes called the tiger of the highlands. The wildcat resemble a very muscular domestic tabby in appearance, with yellow/ medium-brown fur and black spots or stripes. Most apparent is the beautiful tail , which is thick and ringed with perfect bands of black and brown ending in a blunt black tip. The Scottish form is the largest in the wildcat family, with males typically between 6-9 kgs and females between 5-7 kgs. This is about 50% larger than a domestic cat. A study suggests that current house cats are descendants from a group of self-domesticating wildcats 10,000 years ago, somewhere in Eastern Europe. Fossil remains suggest that the biggest ever wildcat measured 1.2 m from nose to tail and may gave weighed 14 kgs.