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Low rates of hybridization between European wildcats and domestic cats in a human‐dominated landscape
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Low rates of hybridization between European wildcats and domestic cats in a human‐dominated landscape
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Journal Article
Low rates of hybridization between European wildcats and domestic cats in a human‐dominated landscape
2018
Overview
Hybridization between wild species and their domestic congeners is considered a major threat for wildlife conservation. Genetic integrity of the European wildcat, for instance, is a concern as they are outnumbered by domestic cats by several orders of magnitude throughout its range. We genotyped 1,071 individual wildcat samples obtained from hair traps and roadkills collected across the highly fragmented forests of western Central Europe, in Germany and Luxembourg, to assess domestic cat introgression in wildcats in human‐dominated landscapes. Analyses using a panel of 75 autosomal SNPs suggested a low hybridization rate, with 3.5% of wildcat individuals being categorized as F1, F2, or backcrosses to either parental taxon. We report that results based on a set of SNPs were more consistent than on a set of 14 microsatellite markers, showed higher accuracy to detect hybrids and their class in simulation analyses, and were less affected by underlying population structure. Our results strongly suggest that very high hybridization rates previously reported for Central Europe may be partly due to inadequate choice of markers and/or sampling design. Our study documents that an adequately selected SNP panel for hybrid detection may be used as an alternative to commonly applied microsatellite markers, including studies relying on noninvasively collected samples. In addition, our finding of overall low hybridization rates in Central European wildcats provides an example of successful wildlife coexistence in human‐dominated, fragmented landscapes. ”We assess hyribization between wildcats and domestic cats in Germany and Luxembourg, and offer an explanation for greatly differing previous estimates, contrasting with those reported in our and other studies. We use microsatellites, SNPs and control region mtDNA sequences, as well as different sampling strategies (hair trapping and roadkill specimen collection) of 1.071 individuals. Our results showed that study setup concerning the choice of markers and sampling affect inferred hybridization rates. Our study documents very low hybridization rates between a wild and a domestic taxon despite close coexistence and widespread anthropogenic disturbance.”
