# Habitat use by European wildcats (Felis silvestris) in central Spain: what is the relative importance of forest variables?

> Are European wildcats really forest animals? By walking 101 km of trails in central Spain and counting wildcat scats, this study found wildcats in every habitat, including open cereal farmland, and most often in scrub and pasture mosaics with rabbits and water. No forest variable helped explain where they lived.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2010-lozano-habitat-use-european-wildcats/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** Jorge Lozano
- **Year published:** 2010
- **Journal or source:** Animal Biodiversity and Conservation
- **Full citation:** Lozano, J. 2010. Habitat use by European wildcats (Felis silvestris) in central Spain: what is the relative importance of forest variables? Animal Biodiversity and Conservation 33(2): 143–150.
- **DOI:** 10.32800/abc.2010.33.0143
- **Access status:** Open access (CC BY 4.0)
- **PDF:** https://www.originalwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/2010_Lozano_habitat-use-by-european-wildcats-what-is-the-relative-importance-of-forest-variables.pdf

## Tags

- **Species:** Mammals > European rabbit; Mammals > European wildcat
- **Region:** Europe > Spain
- **Tracking:** Scat; Sign surveys; Tracking; Tracks and signs identification
- **Behaviour and ecology:** Behaviour; Habitat selection
- **Methods and technology:** Linear regression
- **Data type:** New field data
- **Observer qualification:** Reported but not validated
- **Discipline:** Behaviour and ecology; Wildlife tracking
- **Year published:** 2010

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied: European wildcat (Felis silvestris; the European subspecies F. s. silvestris). Also measured: wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), counted by their latrines as an index of prey abundance. Present but not studied: domestic cat (Felis catus), whose scats the author says can be told apart from wildcat scats. Rodents and rabbits are named as the wildcat’s main prey (from earlier studies).
- **Location and habitat:** Central Spain, mainly the province of Madrid, with nearby areas in the north of Toledo and the south of Segovia provinces; the Guadarrama range is shown on the study map. Five habitat types: Mediterranean vegetation in plains (500 to 800 m above sea level; holm oak with Cistus ladanifer and Retama sphaerocarpa scrub, mainly used for hunting), Mediterranean mountains (950 to 1,050 m; the same mosaic, mainly used for cattle raising), deciduous forests of Pyrenean oak (1,250 to 1,700 m), mountain Scots pine forests (1,250 to 1,800 m), and agricultural steppes (flat cereal croplands around 500 m, with small scattered patches of scrubland).
- **Topics:** habitat use and habitat preference; the “forest hypothesis” (the long-held view that wildcats are a forest species); scrubland and pasture mosaics; agricultural steppe as wildcat habitat (reported for the first time); prey (rabbit) abundance; shelter availability; scat-based abundance index; comparison with an earlier abundance model for the same region (Lozano et al. 2003); predator control as a threat; habitat conservation.
- **Statistics or models:** Abundance index (share of 200 m segments with a wildcat scat on each 1 km transect); rabbit latrine index; a priori contrasts between habitat types; principal component analysis (PCA) of 15 microhabitat, landscape and rabbit variables (three factors, 71.54% of variance); general linear model (GLM) built by forward stepwise selection (F to enter = 4; F to remove = 3.99); tests of normality and equal variances; software Statistica 6.0. Only PCA Factor 2 (scrub and pasture mosaic with rabbits and watercourses versus pure cropland) entered the model, which explained 10.82% of the variance (F1,99 = 12.02, p < 0.001). Small points to note: the text says wildcats “tended” to be more abundant in the Mediterranean mountains with a marginally non-significant p = 0.063, while the Figure 2 caption says the only significant difference was between the Mediterranean mountains and the mountain pine forests (p = 0.038 in the text); the paper calls the model a “general linear model” in English but “modelos lineales generalizados” (generalized linear models) in the Spanish summary; the single-author paper often writes “we”.
- **Data type:** New field data: 101 transects of 1 km each (101 km in total) walked between autumn 2001 and spring 2002. Landscape variables from land-use maps (1:50,000). Results compared with an earlier study in the same region (Lozano et al. 2003).

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

The European wildcat has long been described as a forest species, and conservation advice in Europe and Spain has focused on managing forests for them. Some studies, though, have found wildcats preferring scrubland and pasture. The author asked how important forests really are for wildcats in central Spain, and for the first time in wildcat habitat studies included agricultural steppe (open cereal farmland).

- Transects. Between autumn 2001 and spring 2002, the author surveyed 101 transects, each 1 km long, along paths and tracks 1 to 3 m wide. They covered five habitat types: Mediterranean vegetation in the plains (16 km), Mediterranean vegetation in the mountains (16 km), deciduous oak forests (21 km), mountain pine forests (25 km) and agricultural steppes (23 km). Transects were at least 1 km apart. Most followed the same routes as an earlier study in the same region (Lozano et al. 2003); the steppe transects were new.

- Wildcat abundance from scats. Each transect was split into five 200 m segments. The wildcat abundance index was the number of segments with a wildcat scat, divided by five.

- Rabbit abundance. In each 200 m segment, the author walked a short side transect (50 m long and 1 m wide) at right angles to the trail and counted rabbit latrines.

- Habitat structure. Every 200 m, the author estimated by eye tree cover, shrub cover, open ground, rock cover, tree height and a shelter score (1 to 5, based on cavities in rocks and trees and how dense and hidden the site was) within 25 m. Land-use maps were used to measure forest, pasture, cropland, scrub and urban cover, the number of watercourses, roughness and elevation in a 9 km² area around each transect, an area that covers most reported wildcat home ranges.

- Analysis. Abundance was compared between habitat types. The habitat and rabbit variables were combined into a few summary factors, which were then used to build a model of wildcat abundance.

### 2. What they found

Where wildcats were found

- Wildcat scats were found in all five habitat types, but on only 42 of the 101 transects.

- Abundance tended to be highest in the Mediterranean mountain vegetation, although this was marginally short of statistical significance.

- The only clear difference was between the Mediterranean mountains (highest) and the mountain pine forests (lowest).

- Agricultural steppes did not differ from the other habitats, although abundance there tended to be lower than in the Mediterranean mountains. Mountains and plains did not differ.

Habitat structure

The variables boiled down to three factors that together explained about 72% of the variation between transects:

- High, rough, dense forest versus flat cropland with many rabbits.

- Rough areas with a mosaic of scrub and pasture, rabbits and watercourses versus pure cropland.

- Scrubland with watercourses versus urban areas and pasture.

The model

Only the second factor entered the model. Wildcats were more numerous in scrub and pasture mosaics with rabbits and watercourses, and scarce where there were only crops. No forest variable was included. The model was highly significant but explained only about 11% of the variation in wildcat abundance.

### 3. What they concluded

- Wildcats can live in forests, but forest is not their preferred habitat where alternatives exist, especially scrubland in Mediterranean areas, so the species cannot be considered a true forest species.

- The “forest hypothesis” probably came from early studies in central Europe, where few other habitats were available, and survived partly because a key Scottish study showing a preference for open habitat was published as a technical report rather than in a scientific journal.

- Agricultural steppes were used as much as the other habitats, the first time this has been reported. Small scrub patches and good numbers of rodents and rabbits probably provide shelter and food there, much as forest fragments and riverside woodland do elsewhere.

- Intensive cropland, with little shelter, water or prey, was the worst habitat.

- Habitat structure alone explained little of where wildcats were, so other factors must matter too.

### 4. How tracking was or was not used

The whole study rests on scat surveys. The author walked trails and recorded wildcat scats in each 200 m segment, using the fact that, where the two species live together, only wildcats leave scats exposed along paths. Domestic cat scats were told apart from wildcat scats following the methods of the earlier study. Rabbit abundance was measured by counting rabbit latrines. No trailing was reported.

### 5. Tracker or observer certification

Reported but not validated. The author says confusion with scats of other carnivores “seems negligible in view of the author’s experience in cat excrement identification.” This experience was not tested in the study, and no genetic or other check of scat identification is reported.

### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

- A simple wildcat shelter index (1 to 5) based on cavities in rocks and trees and how far one can see.

- Landscape variables counted from land-use maps using a grid of 121 evenly spaced points in a 9 km² area around each transect.

- Habitat variables combined with principal component analysis (PCA) before modelling, to avoid problems from variables that are strongly related to each other.

### 7. Implications for conservation (from the paper)

- Wildcat populations should be protected wherever they are found, whatever the habitat type.

- In Mediterranean regions the key habitat element appears to be scrubland, and the author recommends preventing its destruction.

- Rural land management priorities, in the author’s view, should be keeping mosaic landscapes of open and closed habitat patches and recovering rabbit populations.

- The author considers that ending predator control in hunting areas is essential for long-term wildcat conservation and recovery, as it is currently one of the main problems the species faces in Spain.

### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations)

_These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._

- The study shows how a simple, repeatable scat survey along paths can be used to compare habitats at a regional scale, and how reusing the same transects allows comparison with earlier work.

- All the abundance data depend on one person’s scat identification, including telling wildcat from domestic cat. Testing the observer, or checking a sample of scats by DNA, would make results like these easier to trust.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Habitat use by European wildcats (Felis silvestris) in central Spain: what is the relative importance of forest variables? (Lozano, 2010). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2010-lozano-habitat-use-european-wildcats/