Analysing variations in pelage patterning among European Felis silvestris silvestris populations

Abstract The pelage pattern of wildcats from six regions within the distribution range of the species is analysed to test the hypothesis that clear differences between different regions exist. In total, 98 furs were used, but with different distribution from the Eifel (Germany), Harz Mountains (Germany), Caucasus, Western Spain, Switzerland/France and Greece. Specimens were at least seven months old, sex was not considered. The characteristics used were adapted from the literature and included typical wildcat features like the tail and stripes on the neck. Polychoric correlations, as a binary version of Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, were used as a measure of correlation between pelage characteristics. Pairwise tetrachoric correlations were computed with R 3.1.2., cluster analyses were conducted with SPSS 14. No clear relationship between the pelage characteristics and the geographic distribution of the six studied wildcat populations were found, the hypothesis needs to be rejected. It is however suggested, that coat patterning of Caucasian wildcats to some degree differ from other European wildcat. The results, however, do not clearly corroborate this hypothesis as Caucasian wildcats were not grouped into closed clusters in all the cluster analyses. To a lesser extent, pelage characteristic differences may also exist between wildcats from Western Spain as well as South-Western Greece and other European regions, but the samples are too small to draw conclusions. To test these refined hypotheses, more specimens from the Caucasus, Western Spain and South-Western Greece (but also Switzerland/North-Eastern France) need to be collected and compared according to our protocol.