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

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