TY  - JOUR
A1  - Steyer, Katharina Gloria
A1  - Kraus, Robert H. S.
A1  - Mölich, Thomas
A1  - Anders, Ole
A1  - Cocchiararo, Berardino
A1  - Frosch, Christiane
A1  - Geib, Alexander
A1  - Götz, Malte
A1  - Herrmann, Mathias
A1  - Hupe, Karsten
A1  - Kohnen, Annette
A1  - Krüger, Matthias
A1  - Müller, Franz
A1  - Pir, Jacques B.
A1  - Reiners, Tobias Erik
A1  - Roch, Susan
A1  - Schade, Ulrike
A1  - Schiefenhövel, Philipp
A1  - Siemund, Mascha
A1  - Simon, Olaf
A1  - Steeb, Sandra
A1  - Streif, Sabrina
A1  - Streit, Bruno
A1  - Thein, Jürgen
A1  - Tiesmeyer, Annika
A1  - Trinzen, Manfred
A1  - Vogel, Burkhard
A1  - Nowak, Carsten
T1  - Large-scale genetic census of an elusive carnivore, the European wildcat (Felis s. silvestris)
T2  - Conservation genetics
N2  - The European wildcat, Felis silvestris silvestris, serves as a prominent target species for the reconnection of central European forest habitats. Monitoring of this species, however, appears difficult due to its elusive behaviour and the ease of confusion with domestic cats. Recently, evidence for multiple wildcat occurrences outside its known distribution has accumulated in several areas across Central Europe, questioning the validity of available distribution data for this species. Our aim was to assess the fine-scale distribution and genetic status of the wildcat in its central European distribution range. We compiled and analysed genetic samples from roadkills and hundreds of recent hair-trapping surveys and applied phylogenetic and genetic clustering methods to discriminate wild and domestic cats and identify population subdivision. 2220 individuals were confirmed as either wildcat (n = 1792) or domestic cat (n = 342), and the remaining 86 (3.9 %) were identified as hybrids between the two. Remarkably, genetic distinction of domestic cats, wildcats and their hybrids was only possible when taking into account the presence of two highly distinct genetic lineages of wildcats, with a suture zone in central Germany. 44 % of the individual wildcats where sampled outside the previously published distribution. Our analyses confirm a relatively continuous spatial presence of wildcats across large parts of the study area in contrast to previous analyses indicating a highly fragmented distribution. Our results suggest that wildcat conservation and management should take advantage of the higher than previously assumed dispersal potential of wildcats, which may use wildlife corridors very efficiently.
KW  - Conservation biogeography
KW  - Genetic wildlife monitoring
KW  - Hair sampling
KW  - Lure sticks
KW  - Noninvasive genetic sampling
Y1  - 2017
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/30651
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-306515
SN  - 1572-9737
SN  - 1566-0621
N1  - Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
VL  - 17
IS  - 5
SP  - 1183
EP  - 1199
PB  - Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
CY  - Dordrecht [u. a.]
ER  -