IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Lozano, J.; Malo, A.F. | |
| Conservation of the European Wildcat (_Felis silvestris_) in Mediterranean Environments: A reassessment of current threats | |
| 2012 Book Chapter | |
The wildcat (_Felis silvestris_) is considered as "strictly protected" species under current European legislation. The European wildcat range extends from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caucasus Mountains and up to Scotland in the north. However, its continental distribution is largely fragmented at regional and local scales. According to this fragmented pattern wildcat populations remain isolated, many of them facing real extinction risks. Under this scenario, preserving all the European populations will maximize the species viability on the long term. Even so, considering that Mediterranean populations constitute the half of the species in Europe, and even probably the best preserved populations from a genetic point of view, their conservation is expected to be especially relevant. Several factors, such as habitat destruction, direct and indirect persecution and hybridization with domestic cats, currently threaten wildcat populations in Europe. The relative importance of different threats is expected to vary among regions and populations, but there is much demographic information lacking from these populations to adequately establish conservation issue priorities. The infiltration of domestic cat genes on the wildcat's gene pool, i.e. introgression, is being considered one of the main threats, suggesting special conservation measures such as feral cat control in the wild, aimed at maintaining the genetic integrity of wildcat populations. While any conservation effort should be acknowledged, the results from most genetic analyses do not seem to justify the alarm and efforts devoted to fight introgression, especially in the Mediterranean areas, where this issue can be considered as minor such as shown by studies conducted in the studied populations. On the other hand, other threats such as habitat destruction and non-natural mortality are not receiving enough attention, when in fact these might be more urgent and among the ultimate causes of genetic introgression. Here we highlight current knowledge gaps such as the location and size of viable wildcat populations, their demographic parameters, degree of gene flow and their main selective pressures, as well as the effect of man-induced mortality and habitat alteration on population dynamics. All these gaps, among others, hamper our ability to identify and prioritise conservation problems. Thus, we also propose throughout the text study guidelines to fill these issues, which will help get better picture of the situation and to design effective conservation strategies. |
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