Habitat destruction

• Most of the cats living in the wild in Scotland are hybrid cats with a mix of wildcat and domestic cat ancestry or feral domestic cats.
• But my team’s new study showed they lived alongside domestic cats for almost 2,000 years before interbreeding.
• Habitat loss and hunting are two of the biggest threats facing this species across its range, but in Scotland, hybridisation with domestic cats is now the biggest threat to this population.

How long has this been going on?

• Although domestic cats and wildcats are different species, genetically more different than dogs and wolves, they look similar.
• Domestic cats, descended from the African-Asian wildcat, became widespread in Britain in Roman times.

What changed?

• Wildcats have been hunted for sport, and are also persecuted as a pest species which keeps their numbers down.
• The 20th century also saw a rise in domestic cat ownership, which is now at an all-time high in the UK.

• The hybrid population showed genetic patterns suggesting they are developing immunity to these diseases, with the help of genes inherited from domestic cat parents.
• Without intervention, the few wildcats that remain will interbreed with domestic cats and the wildcat genome will contribute a fraction of a percent to the domestic cat genome.

Does this matter?

• Conservationists are debating the level of risk this poses to wildlife populations, and the best course of action for conservation management.
• However, the consequences of hybridisation are unpredictable, and it is hard to come up with a solution that works for every case.

What next for wildcats?

• First established in 1960, founders of this population largely predate the onset of hybridisation in Scotland.
• A wildcat conservation breeding for release programme is conducted by Saving Wildcats, a partnership led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.
• Monitoring the newly released cats will give us vital insights about how to protect species like the wildcat.

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Joanna Howard-McCombe received funding from NERC, the RZSS and the People's Trust for Endangered Species. Mark Beaumont received funding from NERC. Daniel J. Lawson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• An aquatic fungus had eaten the keratin in their skin, compromising its function and leading to cardiac arrest.
• And worse, the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) had been quietly spreading around the world, from South America to Europe, killing frogs wherever it went.
• As it spread, it caused the extinction of at least four Australian frog species and probably three others.
• As our new research shows, it effectively makes some areas a no-go zone for susceptible frog species.

Pushed from the highlands

• Most are endemic to the continent – and many are spectacularly beautiful or, like the turtle frog, bizarre.
• Lace-lid treefrogs once lived throughout these forests, whether on mountains or down near sea level.

No-go zones

• But even when a species survives contact with an introduced species, it can be forever changed.
• That’s because of less visible effects introduced species like chytrid fungus can have, such as shrinking the areas where native species can survive.
• When this happens, our species can be pushed into smaller parts of their original range, known as environmental refuges.
• Introduced species can actually force much larger contractions to a native species’ niche than to its geographic range.

Pushed into refuges

• Researchers suspect similar changes have been forced on many native species impacted by introduced species.
• Many of us will have seen them haunting parks and beer gardens across northern Australia.
• But the same bird is now extinct or critically endangered in southern Australia, where it used to roam.
• As a result, the curlew has been pushed out of the drier parts of its niche.
• To give threatened species the best chance of survival, we might have to direct our energies to safeguarding them in their environmental refuges, safe from introduced predators or diseases.

• VENTURA, Calif., April 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The nonprofit group Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS), has released an Earth Day callout campaign to implore the public to recognize what sustainability requires on this Earth Day.
• Since the first Earth Day in 1970, saving Earth has been a long-promised goal for people and for the wildlife and the natural cycles that sustain life on our planet.
• However, as CAPS points to in their latest ad, a 2022 World Wildlife Study shows a 69% average decline in wildlife populations since 1970.
• CAPS amplifies its messaging every year alongside celebrating Earth Day, including ads in Noozhawk.com .

• "Getting certified as a Bird Friendly City is something these municipalities can really crow about.
• Bird Friendly City certification is more than just a piece of paper.
• I thank Nature Canada for recognizing Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue with this Bird Friendly City certification and supporting our efforts to make the municipality become safer for wild birds."
• In each municipality seeking certification as a Bird Friendly City, teams are established and residents are actively involved in protecting and monitoring their local bird populations.