HOME RANGE AND HABITAT SELECTION OF THE SARDINIAN WILDCAT (Felis silvestris libyca) IN AN AREA OF SOUTHERN SARDINIA

Four wildcat adult females and four adult males (Felis silvestris libyca, Forster 1780) were monitored with the radio-telemetric technique in several time periods from July 1994 to March 2002, in the faunal park of Monte Arcosu (southwestern Sardinia). 4,356 radio localisations were gathered. The different home-range configurations were calculated with two different methods: the minimum convex polygon method (MPC) and the kernel method. Selection was measured with the Ivlev preference index. The home ranges of the cats calculated with the 100% MCP varied between 75.5 and 469.5 ha. The home ranges calculated with the kernel method varied between 810.0 ha and 133.7 ha. In the summer the wildcats move in a smaller area than in the other seasons. The overlap of the home ranges of a few animals in the different seasons was between 24.5% and 82.5%. High maquis is the most represented vegetational typology in the home ranges of the wildcats followed by low maquis for the females and by the riparial vegetation for the males; both are used in relation to their local availability. Both the selectivity index and the preference index show that only a few wildcats distinguish among the different habitats.