Wild Highland Tours is a new business set up to offer visitors a chance to see and enjoy the magnificent wildlife, scenery and history of West Ardnamurchan. Niall and Fay Rowantree, who live at Swordle, are determined to offer a service which is low-impact yet exciting. That their operation is low-impact is important: one of the animals they specialise in is the very rare and shy Scottish wildcat.
Fay says, "We've seen wildcats on our night tours but, as you can imagine, they are a little camera shy so we have yet to take photographs. However, we do have night vision image intensifier equipment at the moment which enables our visitors to watch them."
At present they offer four tours -
The Daytime Tour, a 4 hour 4x4 tour with a minimum group size of 2 adults.
The Twilight 4x4 Tour, which explores the area from teatime to dusk for the shy creatures - minimum groups size 2 adults.
The Highlands by Night 4x4 Special which explores the area to encounter pine martens, red fox, badgers, owls and roe deer but the true encounter we seek is the wildcat, Scotland’s highland tiger. The minimum group size is 3 adults.
Photography Stalking, in which an experienced guide takes clients out on foot to stalk wild deer, to enable photographs, and to watch the animals' social interaction. This tour is especially exciting at the rut.
Fay adds, "Our local guides know all the best routes and secret haunts, so customers can enjoy our natural heritage at a pace to suit all age groups and interests. We also offer private tours where customers can tailor-make what they do."
Full details are available on the Wild Highland Tours website here.
All pictures by Wild Highland Tours.
'Low impact' is a really admirable aim and obviously this new company means well, BUT doing anything to disturb a wildcat is against the law. It is a EUROPEAN PROTECTED SPECIES.
ReplyDeleteOnce visitors have been shown a 'secret haunt', how long will it STAY secret? I am sure that most tourists will be responsible, but how can any tour leader be certain?
See:
http://www.snh.gov.uk/protecting-scotlands-nature/protected-species/which-and-how/mammals/wildcat-protection/
Will this company - and its visitors - be licensed?
see: http://www.snh.gov.uk/protecting-scotlands-nature/species-licensing/mammal-licensing/wildcats/
For further information about on-going plans to survey, protect and conserve local wildcats, see www.wildcathaven.co.uk. There are also leaflets about this project available in Kilchoan Community Centre.
I have been asked to post the following comment by Fay at Wild Highland Tours:
ReplyDelete"The quality of any animal’s life is based around a healthy habitat and the more involved people become in the management of natural resources, the easier it is to make a case to improve habitats and manipulate numbers for species' success. It would be misguided for any naturalist to believe that the Scotland we inhabit today is a natural landscape untouched by man and Ardnamurchan is no different. It has many outstanding features in natural and bio/geological diversity but is a long way from being untouched or unscarred. We at Wild Highland Tours believe that the true road to success is adding value to the natural history richness we currently possess in this area and by this I mean we, the local and national community - maximising the incomes whilst minimising the impacts, thus creating employment and underpinning a fragile rural area and this should be done wisely. It is with these drivers that Wild Highland Tours was established and is staffed by experienced wild life managers who have increasingly encountered people day and night pursuing wildlife encounters, particularly wildcat encounters, and we believe that this is better done by people knowing where they are, who see them regularly and understand them, in order to prevent harmful impacts.
"Increasingly, the structure of remote communities is changing with many people coming to these areas in pursuit of escape and wildness. This makes the task of natural resource management more complex. All too frequently we have either a vision of how the highlands should be or wish to arrest progress at the point of our arrival. These positions can and should only be taken if they enhance or maintain biodiversity. Tragically, it is a symptom of our modern society. Taking a quote from Aldo Leopold, he stated
'The problem then is how to bring about a stirring for harmony with the land among a people many of whom have forgotten there is any such thing as land, among whom education and culture have become almost synonymous with landlessness. This is the problem of conservation/education'.
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ReplyDelete"Our guides are aware of the guidance set out by Scottish Natural Heritage and our Highlands by Night tour has been set up to meet the demand to meet wildcats whilst minimising disturbance. I quote from the SNH website guidance:
'Wildcat surveys generally involve walking through potential habitat and looking for signs and potential den sites. Providing that surveys are carried out with due regard to avoiding inadvertent disturbance to wildcats, and as long as there is no invasive or prolonged examination of structures that could be currently used by them, then a licence is not required. If signs are found that wildcats might be using a particular place, then unless you are licensed, you should withdraw from that area immediately.'
"With this in mind, our tours are designed to in no way impact upon the cats and this is the reason for thermal and night vision equipment (with filtered lights) which have been tried and tested monitoring other animals at night and do not disturb the cats. We are aware of how valuable and rare wildcats are, and record sightings to assist monitoring, distribution and success. We believe that the larger threats to the wildcats lie in loss of habitat, decline in prey species, species hybridisation and competition from other predators.
"In conclusion, the successful management of any resource is both beneficial and rewarding as it not only benefits the animals themselves but can succeed in influencing proper long term management actions. There is a wealth of information on how to watch wildlife, what to use, where to go, complete with myriads of gadgets, gimmicks and advice. Many thousands of pounds, hours and thoughts are expended in the pursuit of wildlife and we believe a similar amount of though and effort should be given to the sustainable use of our natural resources. It is time - if not imperative - for every wildlife enthusiast to improve wildlife conservation through developing proven management techniques.
"We always welcome questions raised and are more than happy to discuss and debate sustainable land use as time permits. Perhaps the author of the comment, would like to join us on one of our tours to experience and debate some of these issues at first hand?”