Spatial ecology of the European wildcat in a Mediterranean ecosystem: Dealing with small radio-tracking datasets in species conservation

Journal of Zoology

Volumn 279, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 27-35

  Monterroso, P ^a,b,c   Brito, J C ^a   Ferreras, P ^c   Alves, P C ^a,b  

^a CENTRO DE INVESTIGAÇÃO EM BIODIVERSIDADE E RECURSOS GENÉTICOS   (Portugal)

^b UNIVERSITY OF PORTO   (Portugal)

^c INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIÓN EN RECURSOS CINEGÉTICOS IREC CSIC UCLM JCCM   (Spain)

Author keywords

Conservation; European wildcat; Iberian peninsula; Maximum entropy modelling; Radiotracking

Indexed keywords

DATA SET; ECOLOGICAL MODELING; ECOLOGY; ENTROPY; ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR; FEASIBILITY STUDY; FELID; HOME RANGE; POPULATION DENSITY; POPULATION GROWTH; SCRUB; WILD POPULATION;

EURASIA; EUROPE; IBERIAN PENINSULA; SOUTHERN EUROPE;

FELIS SILVESTRIS; MAMMALIA; ORYCTOLAGUS CUNICULUS;

EID: 69249133854     PISSN: 09528369     EISSN: 14697998     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2009.00585.x     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. Alcoforado, M.J., Alegria, M.F., Pereira, A.R. Sirgado, C. (1982) Domínios Bioclimáticos em Portugal, definidos por comparação dos Índices de Gaussen et d'Emberger. Linha de Acção de Geografia Física. Report nr.14, CEG, INIC, Lisboa, 30pp+2 maps (in Portuguese).
2. Barea-Azcón, J.M., Virgós, E., Ballesteros-Duperón, E., Moleón, M. Chirosa, M. (2007). Surveying carnivores at large spatial scales: a comparison of four broad-applied methods. Biodivers. Conserv. 16, 1213 1230.
3. Bossard, M., Feranec, J. Otahel, J. (2000). CORINE land cover technical guide - Addendum 2000. European Environmental Agency. Copenhagen. 105pp.
4. Calvete, C., Estrada, R., Angulo, E. Cabezas-Ruiz, S. (2004). Habitat factors related to wild rabbit conservation in an agricultural landscape. Landscape Ecol. 19, 533 544.
5. Costa, J.C., Aguiar, C., Capelo, J.H., Lousã, M. Neto, C. (1998). Biogeografia de Portugal Continental. Quercetea 0, 5 56.
6. Fahrig, L. Merriam, G. (1994). Conservation of fragmented populations. Conserv. Biol. 8, 50 59.
7. Gonçalves, H., Alves, P.C. Rocha, A. (2002). Seasonal variation in the reproductive activity of the wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in a Mediterranean ecosystem. Wildl. Res. 29, 165 173.
8. Guisan, A. Zimmermann, N. (2000). Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology. Ecological Modelling 135, 147 186.
9. Haskell, J.P., Ritchie, M.E. Olff, H. (2002). Fractal geometry predicts varying body size scaling relationships for mammal and bird home ranges. Nature 418, 527 530.
10. Iborra, O. Lumaret, J.-P. (1997). Validity limits of the pellet group counts in wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Mammalia 61 (2), 205 218.
11. Isaaks, E.H. Srivastava, R.M. (1989). An introduction to applied geostatistics. New York : Oxford University Press.
12. IUCN 2007). Felis silvestris. In European Mammal Assessment. IUCN (Ed.). Available at (accessed 24 August 2007).
13. Ivlev 1961). Experimental ecology of the feeding of fishes. CT, USA : Yale University Press.
14. Jacobs, J. (1974). Quantitative measurement of food selection. A modification of the forage ratio and Ivlev's electivity index. Oecologia 14, 413 417.
15. Johnson, D. (1980). The comparison of usage and availability measurements for evaluating resource preference. Ecology, 61, 65 71.
16. Kenward, R. (2001). A manual for wildlife radio tagging. London : Academic Press.
17. Liberek, M. (1999) Eco-Ethologie du chat sauvage Felis s. silvestris, Schreber 1777 Dans le Jura Vaudois (Suisse). Influence de la couverture neigeuse. Docteur Faculté de Sciences de l'Université de Neuchatel.
18. Liu, C., Berry, P., Dawson, T. Pearson, R. (2005). Selecting thresholds of occurrence in prediction of species distributions. Ecography 28, 385 393.
19. Lozano, J., Moleón, M. Virgós, E. (2006). Biogeographical patterns in the diet of the wildcat, Felis silvestris Schreber, in Eurasia: factors affecting the trophic diversity. J. Biogeogr. 33, 1076 1085.
20. Lozano, J., Virgós, E., Malo, A.F., Huertas, D.L. Casanovas, J.G. (2003). Importance of scrub-pastureland mosaics for wild-living cats occurrence in a Mediterranean area: implications for the conservation of the wildcat (Felis silvestris). Biodivers. Conserv. 12, 921 935.
21. López-Martin, J.M. (2005) Home-range and habitat use by the European wildcat in a Mediterranean landscape. Abstract in the "Biology and Conservation of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris)" seminar, Germany.
22. Manly, B. (1997). Randomization, bootstrap and Monte Carlo methods in biology, 2nd edn. Boca Raton, FL, USA : Chapman and Hall.
23. Mohr, C.O. (1947). Table of equivalent populations of North American small mammals. Am. Midl. Nat. 37, 223 249.
24. Nowell, K. Jackson, P. (1996). Wild cats - status survey and conservation action plan. IUCN, SSC Cat Specialist Group. Cambridge, UK : Burlington Press.
25. Oliveira, R., Godinho, R., Randi, E., Ferrand, N. Alves, P.C. (2008). Molecular analysis of hybridization between wild and domestic cats (Felis silvestris) in Portugal: implications for conservation. Conserv. Genet. 9, 1 11.
26. Palomares, F., Delibes, M., Ferreras, P., Fedriani, J.M., Calzada, J. Revilla, E. (2000). Iberian lynx in a fragmented landscape: predispersal, dispersal, and postdispersal habitats. Conserv. Biol. 14, 809 818.
27. Phillips, S.J., Anderson, R.P. Schapire, R.E. (2006). Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions. Ecol. Model. 190, 231 259.
28. Potocnik, H., Skrbinsek, T., Kljun, F. Kos, I. (2005) Wildcat habitat utilization in the region of the Dinaric Mountains (Slovenia). Abstract in the "Biology and Conservation of the European Wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris)" seminar. Germany.
29. Ragni, B. (1978). Observations on the ecology and behavior of the wild cat (Felis silvestris Schreber, 1777) in Italy. Carniv. Genet. Newsl. 3, 270 274.
30. Rooney, S.M., Wolfe, A. Hayden, T.J. (1998). Autocorrelated data in telemetry studies: time to independence and the problem of behavioural effects. Mammal Rev. 28, 89 98.
31. Schlexer, F.V. (2008). Attracting animals to detection devices. In Noninvasive survey methods for carnivores : 263 292. Long, R.A., MacKay, P., Zielinski, W.J. Ray, J.C. (Eds). Washington : Island Press.
32. Stahl, P. Artois, M. (1991) Status and conservation of the wild cat (Felis silvestris) in Europe and around the Mediterranean rim. Convention on wildlife and natural habitat conservancy in Europe, Strasbourg, 61pp.
33. Sunquist, M. Sunquist, F. (2002). Wild cats of the world. London, UK : Chicago University Press.
34. Urra, F. (2003) El gato montés en Navarra: Distribución, Ecología y Conservación. PhD thesis, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
35. Virgós, E., Tellería, J.L. Santos, T. (2002). A comparison on the response to forest fragmentation by medium-sized Iberian carnivores in central Spain. Biodivers. Conserv. 11, 1063 1079.
36. Wilson, G. Delahay, R. (2001). A review of methods to estimate the abundance of terrestrial carnivores using field signs and observation. Wildl. Res. 28, 151 164.