Characteristics of diurnal resting sites of the endangered European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris): Implications for its conservation

Summary ed information on resting site requirements of the endangered European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris, Schreber, 1777) is so far not well documented. Previous investigations on the ecology of wildcats listed only the used requisites for day time resting itself but did not analyse the direct surroundings of a requisite or the demands imposed by wildcats on their resting site, even though adequate resting sites are an important issue in wildlife conservation. In 2005, between late April and end of October, we conducted an investigation on the diurnal resting sites of three male radio-tracked wildcats followed by environmental mapping in the lower Harz Mountains (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany). The analysis of resting sites was carried out on three spatial scales: the requisite (specific object that was used for resting e.g. root plate, hunting hide) in the center; the microhabitat (quality of the surrounding of the requisite in 2 m radius); and the resting site (quality of the surrounding of the requisite in 25 m radius). Resting requisites were mostly situated on ground level and deadwood structures were often used. Microhabitats were dominated by a herb layer >50 cm in height. A generalised linear model (GLM) showed that the observed wildcats preferred resting sites in shelter structures near forest edges. The selection of resting sites was not strongly affected by man-made structures like roads or villages. Our results emphasise the importance of shelter structures, in particular deadwood structures for wildcat conservation. Therefore, we recommend a forest management strategy which enhances structural heterogeneity by (natural) gap dynamic and with a high amount of deadwood, such as crowns or brushwood.