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Chasing wildcats with my daughter

Mariola Sánchez-Cerdá works to track the elusive European wildcat’s movements and habits.
By
  1. Ugo Mellone
Mariola Sanchez Cerdà and her young daughter hold a large radio tracking antenna while standing on top of a summit in a mountain range in southern Spain

Mariola Sánchez-Cerdá is a biologist and PhD student in the Department of Zoology at the University of Granada in Spain. Credit: Ugo Mellone for Nature

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“In this photograph, I am using radio tracking to monitor European wildcats (Felis silvestris) with my daughter, Sabana. I love this image, because it brings together my two worlds: science and motherhood. It is important to me to inspire her love for nature, and my life as a field biologist allows me to do this almost every day. We are in the Sierra Harana, southern Spain, where wildcats have been monitored with radio tracking and camera traps for the past eight years. So far, we have fitted radio collars on 18 individuals and are now tracking 4 females and 3 males.

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Nature 638, 1144 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00570-w

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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