IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
| Kilshaw, K.; Drake, A.; MacDonald, D.W.; Kitchener, A.C. | |
| The Scottish wildcat: A comparison of genetic and pelage characteristics | |
| 2010 Full Book | |
The Scottish wildcat, _Felis silvestris_, is currently endangered owing to a variety of factors including hybridisation with and disease transmission from the feral cat, _F. catus_, habitat loss and fragmentation, and persecution (e.g. Macdonald et al., 2004). In addition enforcement of legal protection for the Scottish wildcat is problematic, because of difficulties in its clear identification, especially fragmentary remains. In recent years advances have been made in identifying the Scottish wildcat through both pelage characteristics (Kitchener et al., 2005) and genetic analysis (Driscoll et al., 2007). To date these methods have not been correlated with each other, so that their effectiveness is unknown. The aims of this project are to re-evaluate the specimens of wild-living cats collected by Balharry and Daniels (1998), using the new pelage and morphometric diagnostic methods developed by Kitchener et al., (2005) and compare these results with genetic data for these specimens provided by C. Driscoll (Driscoll et al., 2007). Main findings Of 330 pelages skins only up to 13.1% were classified as wildcat under the Strict and Relaxed IDs, thus indicating that the sample, but in particular the Balharry and Daniels (1998) sample (N = 265), is largely composed of hybrids or domestics. Cranial Index (CI) identified 90% of individuals as wildcats (CI < 2.75), but Total Skull Character Score (TSC) identified most as hybrids. Pelage and skull morphometrics, therefore, indicate that at least 70% of the total sample is a mixture of domestic and hybrid individuals. 3D Geometric Skull morphometrics confirmed variation in skull shape between individuals based on their pelage classification. Microsatellite analysis indicated some genetic differentiation between the three pelage groups with specimens being largely classified into the correct genetic cluster based on their pelage classification although there is some overlap between these, probably owing to the high levels of introgression thought to occur in Scotland. There were insufficient data to be confident that the results of the mtDNA analysis could be correlated with either pelage or skull classifications, but the results suggest that the sample is largely hybrid. In summary, the Strict pelage classification proposed by Kitchener et al. (2005) is sufficiently accurate to identify individuals that are genetically different from domestic cats |
|
 |
PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here |
(c) IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group ( IUCN - The World Conservation Union) |