Is survival of European wildcats Felis silvestris in Britain threatened by interbreeding with domestic cats?

Hubbard, A. L.; McOris, Steven; Jones, T.W.; Boid, R.; Scott, R. A. D.; Easterbee, N.

doi:10.1016/0006-3207(92)91117-b

Cited by 64 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…This has previously been observed in carnivores like the gray wolf (Hope 1994;Vila´and Wayne 1999), the Scottish wildcat (Beaumont et al 2001), the European wildcat (Hubbard et al 1992) and the polecat (Davison et al 1999). Domesticated populations are often subjected to intensive selection and thereby reduced genetic variation (Arnold 2004) and high rates of inbreeding (Ralls et al 1988).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Detection of farm fox and hybrid genotypes among wild arctic foxes in Scandinavia

et al. 2006

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In Scandinavia, farmed arctic foxes frequently escape from farms, raising concern about hybridization with the endangered wild population. This study was performed to find a genetic marker to distinguish escaped farm foxes from wild Scandinavian foxes. Microsatellite and mitochondrial control region variation were analyzed in 41 farm foxes. The results were compared with mitochondrial and microsatellite data from the wild population in Scandinavia. The farm foxes were genetically distinct from the wild foxes (F ST =0.254, P < 0.00001) and all farm foxes had a single control region haplotype different from those observed in the wild population. We developed a method based on Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) on the mitochondrial control region to differentiate between farmed and wild arctic foxes. This test was subsequently successfully used on 25 samples from free-ranging foxes, of which four had a suspected farm origin. All four of the suspected foxes, and none of the others, carried the farm fox haplotype. Three of these were successfully genotyped for all eleven microsatellite loci. A population assignment test and a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis indicated that two of these individuals were escaped farm foxes, and that the third possibly was a hybrid between a farmed and a wild arctic fox.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Detection of farm fox and hybrid genotypes among wild arctic foxes in Scandinavia

et al. 2006

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“…The whole trapping season could be divided into 3 periods: (a) during 276 trap-days without snow, 6 individuals were caught (1 ind/46 trap-days), (b) during the following 147 trap-days with a permanent snow cover over 30 cm, no wildcat was caught, (c) in the final period of 317 trap-days without snow or with melting snow between 5 and 20 cm, 4 individuals were caught (1 ind/79 trap-days). Hubbard et al (1991) used DNA techniques to identify 34 wildcat hybrids with domestic cats out of 42 individuals with the described phenotypic characteristics of wildcats. This makes the use of Piechockis (1990) field characteristics for the classification of pure wildcats questionable.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The occurance of wildcats in the southern Swiss Jura Mountains

Dötterer

Bernhart²

1996

Acta Theriol.

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The occurrence of wildcats in the southern Swiss Jura M ountains. Acta Theriologica 41: 2 0 5 -2 0 9 .Fourteen wildcats Felis silvestris silvestris Schreber, 1777 were trapped in winter 1993 in the southern part of the Swiss Jura M ountains as a bycatch. During the last thirty years of protection the presence of wildcats in Switzerland could be confirmed by a few dead-found individuals, but the status of the species was unknown. This is the first indication of an existing population. Even though the upper distribution limit of wildcats in central and western Europe is described at 800 m a.s.l., most individuals were caught in altitudes from 970 to 1200 m. W e registered a higher catching success in south exposed beech forest and in the sycamore forest, than in the northern exposed Norw ay spruce forest. During snowcover above 30 cm no wildcats were caught. The capture sites were located within distances of 2 0 0 -1 9 0 0 m from human settlements.

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“…Indeed, it is unlikely that any European Wildcat does not possess at least some domestic cat ancestry (French et al 1988), although such ancestry would be difficult to demonstrate without a considerable amount of data (Vähä and Primmer 2006;Randi 2008). The use of phenotypic traits such as pelage characteristics has proven unreliable for unequivocally identifying non-hybrid cats (Daniels et al 1998;Hubbard et al 1992; but see Kitchener et al 2005). This is generally attributed to the recent divergence of the subspecies and the absence of domestication-induced morphological divergence (Randi et al 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Preserving genetic integrity in a hybridising world: are European Wildcats (Felis silvestris silvestris) in eastern France distinct from sympatric feral domestic cats?

et al. 2009

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We investigate the genetic profile of putative European Wildcats in northeastern France, possessing the wildcat phenotype, but sampled in an area where they are sympatric with free-roaming domestic cats and, thus, are exposed to potential hybridisation. From a sample of 209 cats, the programme STRUCTURE clearly identified two distinct genetic clusters that corresponded to European Wildcats and domestic cats. The cats from these two clusters were clearly differentiated from each other (F ST = 0.16). However, the genotypes of some individual cats were split between the two clusters, indicative of genetic admixture. Our analysis demonstrates that a genetically distinct population of cats that possess the European Wildcat phenotype persists in north-eastern France, but that there is a low, yet real, risk of hybridisation with sympatric domestic cats. These European Wildcats warrant conservation efforts to protect their genetic integrity.

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Is survival of European wildcats Felis silvestris in Britain threatened by interbreeding with domestic cats?

Cited by 64 publications

References 7 publications

Detection of farm fox and hybrid genotypes among wild arctic foxes in Scandinavia

Detection of farm fox and hybrid genotypes among wild arctic foxes in Scandinavia

The occurance of wildcats in the southern Swiss Jura Mountains

Preserving genetic integrity in a hybridising world: are European Wildcats (Felis silvestris silvestris) in eastern France distinct from sympatric feral domestic cats?

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