Heide Moldenhauer

For one year, ecologist and wildlife filmmaker David Cebulla documents life in unmanaged forests.

For almost three years, nature filmmaker and ecologist David Cebulla has been observing wild Common hamsters. He not only tries to learn more about the species, but also documents why hamsters are globally threatened with extinction. David travels from the western border of the distribution area in France via Germany, Poland, Austria and Hungary to the eastern border of the distribution area in the Kazakh steppe. In the process, he manages to capture some unique and fantastic images. But during the project, it becomes increasingly difficult to find animals living in the wild.

In this 40-minutes-documentary the ecologist and filmmaker David Cebulla is on a quest to find one of Germany's shyest and most endangered species: the European wildcat. During a scientific pre-study, by chance, he made the first record of a wildcat in an area near his hometown Jena. Thereupon he dedicates a whole year to get the genetic evidence and a really splendid film recording of a free-living wildcat. For this reason he sets up trail cameras and lure sticks. To find out more about these animals he meets up with two interview partners in course of the film. The Thuringian wildcat expert Silvester Tamás answers questions regarding estimates on the stock of free-ranging wildcats and the protection of the species. Matthias Krüger is head-taxidermist at the Jena Phyletic Museum and explains what we can learn from wildcats found already dead.