Ecology and genetics of wild-living cats in the north-east of Scotland andthe implications for the conservation of the wildcat

1. The wildcat is considered to be threatened by interbreeding with the dom estic cat. As a result of interbreeding the definition of a wildcat in Scot land is contentious. Many authors consider pelage characteristics to be dia gnostic, yet few data exist on sympatric cats with different pelages. 2. A study of 31 wild-living cats was conducted from 1995 to 1997 in an are a associated with wildcats. Seventy-four per cent of cats caught had stripe d tabby pelages while 26% had other (non-tabby) phenotypes. 3. On the basis of data from eight nuclear DNA microsatellite loci there wa s no strong evidence of two groups, and tabby and non-tabby cats did not de part significantly from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. 4. There were significant differences in gene frequencies and genotypes bet ween the two pelage types. Non-tabby cats were also significantly more simi lar to domestic cats than tabby cats, although still noticeably differentia ted from them. 5. There were potential parent-offspring and sibling-sibling relationships between and within tabby and non-tabby cats, suggesting recent interbreedin g. On average, however, non-tabby cats were genetically less related to eac h other than tabby cats. 6. Radio-tracking revealed that non-tabby adult females had significantly l arger home ranges than tabby adult females. However, for all other aspects of home range size, social organization, activity patterns and habitat use there were no significant differences between cats of different pelage type . 7. The implications of these results are that traditional approaches for at tempting to distinguish wild animals in the face of interbreeding with thei r domestic forms are neither accurate nor effective. Instead, conservation should focus on mechanisms for dealing with groups of animals below the spe cies level. 8. Specifically for the wildcat in Scotland, conservation should focus on p rotection by area. If domestic cat controls were conducted within specified areas then the potential threat posed by interbreeding would be reduced.