When is a wild-living cat a wildcat? Using carnivore guild interactions to decipher ecological function

物种在空间和时间上划分资源，使共存成为可能。然而，野生动物内部的攻击和种间的杀戮是普遍存在的，特别是在食肉动物中。这是如何影响共存的，我们知之甚少。苏格兰的林地食肉动物既栖息在商业林地，也栖息在半自然林地。田鼠是松貂、红狐和野猫的主要食物。当田鼠数量锐减时（通常每3-4年发生一次），捕食者必须依靠其他猎物，这可能导致它们的时空活动和竞争相互作用发生变化。野猫和松貂有独特的潜力在这样的崩溃中利用树木猎物，而貂和狐狸是兼性食果动物。所有物种都可能越来越多地利用鹿腐肉（森林恢复的副产品）。随着今年夏天圈养野猫的首次重新引入，我将抓住这一变化给捕食者协会社区带来的机会，研究捕食者如何在猎物丰度较低的时期适应，以及这如何影响它们的时空活动和竞争互动。野猫曾经在英国广泛分布，但数量大幅下降，主要是由于迫害、狩猎、栖息地丧失以及与家猫的杂交。拯救野猫计划目前只在苏格兰北部活动，数量非常少。该计划旨在通过在凯恩格姆连接（CC）地区释放人工饲养的野猫来防止它们的灭绝。CC项目的目标是在Cairngorms国家公园的广阔区域内改善栖息地、物种和生态过程，因此圈养释放计划很好地满足了这些目标。Clashindarroch和Angus Glens是两个苏格兰野猫行动（SWA）优先区域，主要由FLS管理的林业种植园主导。它们的野猫种群与家猫有强烈的融合。这些猫在功能上与杂交较少的“纯”野猫有何不同，以及林业实践应如何解释这一点尚不清楚。在Clashindarroch和Angus Glens的管理杂交种群，以及在CC地区重新引入圈养繁殖的野猫，为了解苏格兰捕食者群落中共存、空间利用和猎物资源的生态过程提供了一个独特的比较机会。将已有的渐渗野猫种群与新引进的高遗传质量野猫种群进行比较，为研究人工繁殖野猫的建立途径提供了一个独特的准实验机会。这也有助于探索野猫在捕食者群体和更广泛的生态系统中扮演的角色的关键问题。特别是，了解野猫的遗传来源是否与它们如何以及是否融入现有的捕食者群落有任何关系，这将是至关重要的。了解野猫和杂交猫在功能上的异同，有助于更好地保护野猫，帮助确定哪些个体受到法律保护。调查野猫对人工林森林管理的空间和行为反应，以及了解人工林栖息地野猫繁殖生态的关键特征，将有助于保护和土地管理组织（如FLS）实施必要的保护措施。考虑到这些目标，这个项目的目标是：1。量化引入的圈养野猫和更广泛的Cairngorms捕食者群落之间的空间和饮食重叠，特别关注猎物资源和栖息地的时空划分。比较圈养野猫和杂交自由生活野猫的饮食和栖息地使用/选择，并确定这些特征是否随着圈养野猫学会应对竞争相互作用和不断变化的猎物供应而趋同。调查空间和行为反应

Species partition resources in space and time, making coexistence possible. Nevertheless, intraguild aggression and interspecific killings are known to widely occur, especially amongst carnivores. How this affects coexistence is poorly known.Scotland's woodland predators inhabit both commercial and semi-natural woodlands. Field voles dominate the diet of pine martens and red foxes, and likely wildcats. When field vole populations crash, as is typical every 3-4 years, predators must rely on alternative prey, potentially leading to changes in their spatiotemporal activity and competitive interactions. Wildcats and pine martens have the unique potential to exploit arboreal prey during such crashes, while martens and foxes are facultative frugivores. All species may increasingly exploit deer carrion (a by-product of forest restoration).With the first reintroduction of captive bred wildcats scheduled for this summer, I will seize the opportunity presented by this change to predator guild communities to investigate how predators adapt during periods of low prey abundance and how this affects their spatiotemporal activity and competitive interactions.Wildcats were once widespread across Great Britain but declined significantly, largely due to persecution, hunting, habitat loss, and hybridisation with domestic cats. Now restricted to northern Scotland in very low numbers, Saving Wildcats aims to prevent their extinction by releasing captive-bred wildcats in the Cairngorms Connect (CC) area. The CC project aims to enhance habitats, species, and ecological processes across a vast area within the Cairngorms National Park, thus the captive-release programme fits well within these goals.Clashindarroch and Angus Glens are two Scottish Wildcat Action (SWA) Priority Areas dominated by forestry plantation largely managed by FLS. Their wildcat populations are strongly introgressed with domestic cats. How these cats differ functionally from less hybridised "pure" wildcats and how forestry practices should account for this is unknown. The managed hybridised populations in Clashindarroch and Angus Glens alongside the reintroduction of captive-bred wildcats in the CC area offers a unique comparative opportunity to understand ecological processes of coexistence, space use and prey resources in Scotland's predator community. The comparison of this pre-existing introgressed wildcat population with a new introduced population of high genetic quality offers a unique quasi-experimental opportunity to investigate the path to establishment for captive-bred wildcats.This also allows exploration of key questions about the role wildcats play in the predator community and wider ecosystem. In particular, it will be crucial to understand whether the genetic provenance of wildcats has any bearing on how, and whether, they integrate into the existing predator community. Understanding the functional differences and similarities between wildcats and hybridised cats should enable better protection of wildcats, helping to determine which individuals are legally protected. Investigating the spatial and behavioural responses of wildcats to forest management in plantations, alongside understanding key features of plantation habitat for wildcat breeding ecology, will facilitate both conservation and land management organisations, such as FLS, to implement necessary protective measures.With these aims in mind, the objectives of this project are:1. Quantify spatial and dietary overlap between introduced captive-bred wildcats and the wider Cairngorms predator community with a specific focus on spatiotemporal partitioning of prey resources and habitat.2. Compare diet and habitat use/selection between captive-bred and hybridised free-living wildcats, and determine whether these characteristics converge as the captive-bred wildcats learn to cope with competitive interactions and changing prey supply.3. Investigate the spatial and behavioural responses