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Murgia, C.; Murgia, A. | |
Home range and habitat selection of the Sardinian wildcat (_Felis silvestris libyca_) in an area of southern Sardinia | |
2012 Present Environment and Sustainable Development (6): 1-20 | |
Four wildcat adult females and four adult males (_Felis silvestris libyca_, Forster 1780) were monitored with the radio-telemetric technique in several time periods from July 1994 to March 2002, in the faunal park of Monte Arcosu (southwestern Sardinia). 4,356 radio localisations were gathered. The different home-range configurations were calculated with two different methods: the minimum convex polygon method (MPC) and the kernel method. Selection was measured with the Ivlev preference index. The home ranges of the cats calculated with the 100% MCP varied between 75.5 and 469.5 ha. The home ranges calculated with the kernel method varied between 810.0 ha and 133.7 ha. In the summer the wildcats move in a smaller area than in the other seasons. The overlap of the home ranges of a few animals in the different seasons was between 24.5% and 82.5%. High maquis is the most represented vegetational typology in the home ranges of the wildcats followed by low maquis for the females and by the riparial vegetation for the males; both are used in relation to their local availability. Both the selectivity index and the preference index show that only a few wildcats distinguish among the different habitats. |
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