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Gone before it’s known? Camera-trapping shows alarming levels of putative hybrids in the wildcat (Felis silvestris) population of the Gargano National Park (Southern Italy)

  • Lorenzo Gaudiano , Giuseppe Corriero , Margherita Villani and Stefano Anile ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: October 10, 2022

Abstract

The European wildcat is a small carnivore widespread across Europe and hybridization with the domestic cat is one of the major threats to wildcats. We estimate the population density of wild-living cats (both wildcats and putative hybrids based on pelage) in the Gargano National Park (Southern Italy). We sampled 20 stations for 540 camera days. We obtained 23 images from 17 detections at 10 cameras, and we identified 10 individuals (6 wildcats and 4 putative hybrids). Population density was estimated at 0.34 ± 0.15 SE wild-living cats/km2. The proportion of putative hybrids indicates an alarming hybridization for this population.


Corresponding author: Stefano Anile, Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory, University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale 62901, USA, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

The comments of two anonymous reviewers have improved this manuscript.

We thank Prof. Clayton Nielsen and Tamara Lazic for reviewing the English.

  1. Author contributions: LG planned the sampling. LG and MV performed field work and data entry, SA ran the analysis and wrote the first draft. All the authors have read the draft and have accepted responsibility for this manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

  4. Research ethics: The procedures employed during this study were in accordance with the national laws.

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Received: 2021-07-08
Accepted: 2022-07-26
Published Online: 2022-10-10
Published in Print: 2022-11-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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