“Phantom” cat caught on camera

IMAGES of a mountain cat have been caught on camera in the Sierra de los Filabres.

The SERBAL Society for the Study and Recovery of Almerian Biodiversity revealed that after nearly three weeks of waiting it had recorded footage of the solitary feline on one of the 12 phototrap cameras it has set up at strategic locations in an area of 2,000-hectares.

SERBAL said it was a female, and the camera had filmed her going in different directions on different days.

The organisation is aiming to carry out a census of the cat it dubs the “phantom of the Sierra de los Filabres” on its website. It describes the task as a “real challenge” given the lack of available data on the animal in Almeria, but had based the decisions on where to locate the cameras on extensive knowledge of the mountains and intuition as to where cats are most likely to be found.

At the same time, SERBAL warned there are significantly less dense populations of the species in the province than in the north of Spain.

The cameras have picked up plenty of other kinds of wildlife, mainly foxes and deer, but also martens, genets, badgers, rabbits, rats and mice.