Sunday 12th January 2020

Off on my travels again, this time to a wintry Switzerland to undertake the second and last travelling phase of my Churchill Fellowship adventures.

The taxi arrives on time and I set off to Crewe train station in torrential rain. My Northern Rail train actually arrives early and gets to Manchester Airport on time. The departure lounge is full of people who are off on skiing holidays.

On our decent into Zurich we fly over the Alps. The snow capped mountains look stunning in the sunset.

Images are not the best but there’s only so much you can lean over people you’ve never met before to take a photo! Yes, ‘Swiss’ still give you free chocolate on their flights, yummy.

On my arrival I make my way through security and baggage pick up as quickly as possible to get to the train station. Unfortunately, I’ve just missed a train to Bern, so I wait in a cafe for the next train with a piece of cake and coffee.

The train journey to Bern is relatively quick and I’m picked up by my hosts Dr Urs Breitenmoser and Dr Christine Breitenmoser-Wursten (co-chairs of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group) and driven through the very beautiful city of Bern at night towards Muri.

Tomorrow the project starts. I’ll be meeting up with the rest of the team at KORA (Carnivore Management Research Group), to learn as much as I can about the various long-term lynx and wildcat projects that the team are involved in and I’ll go out into the field. Whilst, in the Bern area I will also be meeting members of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment who carry out the environmental policy functions of the government/federal states.

In the following week, I will move on to Zurich and I’ll visit Dr Marianne Hartmann, who runs a captive breeding facility for wildcats and has been involved in long-term wildcat reintroduction projects. I’ll also visit Dr Beatrice Nussberger at Zurich University who developed the SNP technique to distinguish between wildcats, domestic cats and hybrids.

Tantalisingly, plans have changed slightly and I’ll be visiting more people and organisations. You’ll find out more in later blogs……….