For our excursion today as part of the 6th #EUROWILDCAT meeting, we went into the Bavarian Forest National Park.
We had lots of discussions and new information on the forest, including life, death, and regeneration.
Stunning views from the top of the Lusen ⛰️ Clear but cold!
Kerry Kilshaw does a great job explaining the long and hard modelling process to get a reliable wildcat habitat model for #Scotland.
Lots of great work to get to this stage, she highlights the huge contribution of Sam Cushman and the team at @WildCRU_Ox!
#EUROWILDCAT
Lara Semple describes the "trap-neuter-vaccinate-return" tactics to deal with feral cats and hybrid wildcats in Scotland as part of the @SaveOurWildcats work in the Cairngorms.
Very cool! (And all projector problems in the room dealt with very professionally!)
#EUROWILDCAT
Next up is Gregor Rolshausen from @geobiodiversity/ @Senckenberg shows how we use #genetics to tackle the biggest problem in wildcat #conservation - hybridisation!
Case study = Rhine Valley hybrids
Great work and we are all indebted to the lab in Senckenberg!
#EUROWILDCAT
Sabrina Streif from FVA (Baden-Württemberg, Germany 🇩🇪) asking the hard questions! How do we deal with wildcat hybrids? What about in captivity? What are our ethical/welfare/conservation concerns?
All this in the context of the hybrid swarm in southwest Germany.
#EUROWILDCAT
Despina Migli (University of Thessaloniki, #Greece 🇬🇷) captivates us with the first results of wildcat genetics in Greece!
Definitely some hybridisation problems, and we are looking forward to the expansion and continuation of this work. Interesting!
#EUROWILDCAT
Continuing the Swiss wildcat saga is Lea Maronde of #KORA 🇨🇭🐺🐱🐻
Lots of work on wildcat monitoring including #genetics, #cameratraps, and collars.
Interesting results too, a lot of domestic cats and hybrids!
#EUROWILDCAT
Good morning!
We're back at the 6th #EUROWILDCAT meeting here in Bavarian Forest National Park.
The first talk of the day is from Beatrice Nussberger of Wildtier Schweiz and @UZH. Beatrice describes the situation with wildcat genetics in #Switzerland 🇨🇭
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bioc…
Agnes Gruber is a ranger in Őrség National Park in #Hungary.
They've been monitoring wildcat since 2018 after the species returned. The national park is using camera traps, collecting hair samples, and using detection dogs. Domestic cat incursion is a big risk!
#EUROWILDCAT
Decades(!) of research on #wildcats have shown us that road mortality is a huge problem 💀🚗
Matthias Herrmann of Ökolog breaks it down for us in his usual charismatic style and offers his experienced opinion.
Lots of challenges, but also opportunities!
#EUROWILDCAT
The past, present, and future work of @BfN_de to secure wildcat conservation in Germany 🇩🇪💪 thank you for your talk!
Important points mentioned, protection and creation of wildcat habitat is good for many species in forests and open areas!
#EUROWILDCAT
Very interesting talk with Roo Campbell of @nature_scot about the real-world scenarios that manifest for landowners in a wildcat landscape.
Especially interesting to see how rest sites are treated and protected. Room for more positive action from landowners?
#EUROWILDCAT
The amazing work of @SaveOurWildcats in the @CairngormsCo landscape as communicated to us by Alexander Scurrah-Price. Very cool to see how these cats move in the Highlands.
Real, practical #conservation work is happening in #Scotland, bravo!!!
#EUROWILDCAT
Thomas Dando of @DurrellWildlife and @UniofExeter talks about the importance of social sciences in planning reintroduction projects, and how they're working with communities and @IUCN guidelines to look at the potential of wildcat reintroduction in #Wales 🐈⬛↩️
#EUROWILDCAT
Another @jlugiessen special with Sarah Stubbe!
She shows how they dissected over 100 dead wildcats, looking at samples from all available organs, and testing for a whole host of viruses 🔬👩🔬 most cats had contact to at least one virus!
#EUROWILDCAT
Beatriz Alves talks to us about the multidisciplinary wildcat project following the #OneHealth concept. She started this work during her Master's program but now it has evolved into a full PhD project!
#EUROWILDCAT
Teresa Nava from Gießen University (@jlugiessen) discusses the need for research about rehabilitation, the GPS collaring process, soft-releases, and things that dictate the failures and success of releases.
And a trail of dead guinea pigs and rabbits 💀🐰 #EUROWILDCAT
A one-two punch of @EvaSanchezA after lunch!
A growing initiative looking at reproductive biology of European wildcat and why it's an important part of our research on this species #EUROWILDCAT
Amazing progress and sophisticated analysis from Carolina Lopes Nogueira on density for wildcat on the European scale (spatial-capture recapture, space-to-event) looking at our many study sites across the network.
#EUROWILDCAT
Do you think like a wildcat?
@EvaSanchezA presents a huge amount of work on behavioural states, memory, and cognition in European cats. Really cool insights into wildcat behaviour using Hidden Markov Models in Germany and Greece 🇩🇪🇬🇷
#EUROWILDCAT
María Alejandra Cuentas Romero suggests bringing together our network and new methods for species distribution modelling to update the distribution of wildcat in Europe 🗺️ #EUROWILDCAT
@MarcoHeurich @julianoeser
The first talk of the scientific program here at the 6th #EUROWILDCAT meeting.
Our indomitable data curator and PhD student @UniFreiburg /@Wild_Ecol_Cons.
How do roads affect wild felids in Europe? 🐾🐈⬛🚗
Prof. Dr. Marco Heurich (@MarcoHeurich) opens up the 6th #EUROWILDCAT meeting in the Bavarian Forest National Park!
#EUROMAMMALS
New paper from our #EUROWILDCAT consortium! 🐱
European wildcat (Felis silvestris) living in agri landscapes must increase their home-range size to reach resources somewhere else🐾
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Last month our PhD student Matteo Bastianelli was was featured in @el_pais talking #wildcats and roads (ES 🇪🇸)
#EUROWILDCAT #EUROMAMMALS
Check out the paper here:
x.com/elpais_eco/sta… sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Looking forward to seeing Dutch wildcats in the database someday soon! #EUROWILDCAT
x.com/guardianeco/st… eurowildcat.org
The cat (paper 🙀) is out of the bag! Led by Matteo L. Bastianelli, PhD student and #Eurowildcat data curator.
Incredible cooperative work across 22 study areas in Europe and 211 animals to study #wildcat survival.
Out now in #BiologicalConservation! 1/2
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Despite being vital to #EUROWILDCAT, he is also a secret dog lover 🐶🐱
Outside of work Matteo is bouldering, running, doing calisthenics, and Jiu-jitsu 💪 And if not those things he is cooking (and eating)!
Hopefully, we can soon share Matteo's work on wildcat survival 2/2
