Abstract
Modern state of the wildcat populations in Ukraine is analyzed on the basis of detailed review and analysis of its records above (annotations) and before (detailed cadastre) 2000. Data on 71 modern records in 10 administrative regions of Ukraine are summarized, including: Lviv (8), Volyn (1), Ivano-Frankivsk (2), Chernivtsi (31), Khmelnytskyi (4), Vinnytsia (14), Odesa (4), Mykolaiv (4), Kirovohrad (2) and Cherkasy (1) regions. Detailed maps of species distribution in some regions, and in Ukraine in general, and the analysis of the rates of expansion as well as direction of change in species limits of the distribution are presented. Morphological characteristics of the samples from the territory of Ukraine are described. Keywords: wildcat, state of populations, geographic range, expansion, Ukraine.
Highlights
Wildcat (Felis silvestris Schreber, 1777) is a rare mammal species, included in the all editions of the Red Data Book of Ukraine (1980, 1994, 2009), and known in Ukraine mainly in most western regions
There are many threats for this species, from direct extermination to decreasing of food base, and from lost of habitats to hybridization with domestic cats
There are just a few special publications deal with this species in Ukraine, but most of them concern with morphological variability [14, 21, 38,39] or separate records [23–24, 28 etc.]
Summary
Wildcat (Felis silvestris Schreber, 1777) is a rare mammal species, included in the all editions of the Red Data Book of Ukraine (1980, 1994, 2009), and known in Ukraine mainly in most western regions. There is dominant viewpoint about absence of “true breeding lines” of wild cat (pure-bred wild cats) in Europe [27] This point of view to the Carpathian population in Ukraine was attributed [42]. Main goal of this work is analysis of known records of Felis sylvestris in Ukraine (except Carpa thians) during period after RDBU last edition and preparation of prognosis deal with new changes of the species geographic ranges. Conclusions about deviations from the wild type were made, nurseries were noted: color irregularities in the color of the muzzle, the deviations in the overall color tone, changing the proportions of the body (in particular, the relative length of the tail and paws) and other features Both such cases are marked in the text (localities L1 and M4).
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