Authors: MariePauline Beugin Guillaume Leblanc Guillaume Queney Eugenia Natoli Dominique Pontier
Publish Date: 2016/07/25
Volume: 17, Issue: 6, Pages: 1405-1415
Abstract
Hybridization between the European wildcat Felis silvestris silvestris and the domestic cat Felis silvestris catus has been found in several European countries with different landscape structures and in various proportions In this study we focus on a local population of European wildcats in forests fragmented by agricultural lands in northeastern France Our aim is to better understand how the spatial organization of the wildcats in this particular type of environment might impact the proportion of hybridization We combined radiotracking and genetics through the use of microsatellite markers in order to assess both the spacing pattern and the level of hybridization of this wildcat population Hybridization is rare in this wildcat population with only one putative hybrid most likely backcrossed detected out of 42 putative wildcats We found that most females were concentrated inside the forest while males stood in the periphery or outside the forest Furthermore many males and females resulted related Such a spacing pattern might limit contacts between male domestic cats and female wildcats and can be one of the causes that explain the low level of hybridization in the wildcat population in this environment We could not exclude the possibility of hybrid presence in the neighboring domestic cat populations Our results yield new insights on the influence that the landscape configuration and the spacing pattern can have on genetic flow between the populations of the two subspecies
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