Informing conservation strategies with museum genomics: Long-term effects of past anthropogenic persecution on the elusive European wildcat.

ABSTRACT: Like many carnivore species, European wildcats (Felis silvestris) have suffered severe anthropogenic population declines in the past, resulting in a strong population bottleneck at the beginning of the 20th century. In Germany, the species has managed to survive its near extinction in small isolated areas and is currently recolonizing former habitats owing to legal protection and concerted conservation efforts. Here, we SNP-genotyped and mtDNA-sequenced 56 historical and 650 contemporary samples to assess the impact of massive persecution on genetic diversity, population structure, and hybridization dynamics of wildcats. Spatiotemporal analyses suggest that the presumed postglacial differentiation between two genetically distinct metapopulations in Germany is in fact the result of t

SUBMITTER: von Thaden A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8717334 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature