Hybridization between wild and domesticated organisms is a worldwide conservation issue. In the Jura Mountains, threatened European wildcats (Felis silvestris) have been demographically spreading for approximately the last 50 years, but this recovery is coupled with hybridization with domestic cats (Felis catus). Here, we project the pattern of future introgression using different spatially explicit scenarios to model the interactions between the two species, including competition and different population sizes. We project the fast introgression of domestic cat genes into the wildcat population under all scenarios if hybridization is not severely restricted. If the current hybridization rate and population sizes remain unchanged, we expect the loss of genetic distinctiveness between wild and domestic cats at neutral nuclear, mitochondrial and Y chromosome markers in one hundred years. However, scenarios involving a competitive advantage for wildcats and a future increase in the wildcat population size project a slower increase in introgression. We recommend that future studies assess the fitness of these hybrids and better characterize their ecological niche and their ecological interactions with parental species to elucidate effective conservation measures.

中文翻译：

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预计瑞士汝拉地区的家猫会渗入欧洲野猫。


野生和驯化生物之间的杂交是一个世界范围的保护问题。在汝拉山区，受威胁的欧洲野猫 ( Felis silvestris ) 在过去 50 年里一直在人口上蔓延，但这种恢复是与家猫 ( Felis catus ) 杂交相结合的。在这里，我们使用不同的空间明确场景来预测未来基因渗入的模式，以模拟两个物种之间的相互作用，包括竞争和不同的种群规模。我们预计，如果杂交没有受到严格限制，在所有情况下，家猫基因都会快速渗入野猫种群中。如果目前的杂交率和种群规模保持不变，我们预计一百年内野猫和家猫之间的中性核、线粒体和 Y 染色体标记的遗传独特性将丧失。然而，涉及野猫竞争优势和未来野猫种群规模增加的情景预计基因渗入的增长将放缓。我们建议未来的研究评估这些杂交种的适应性，并更好地描述它们的生态位及其与亲本物种的生态相互作用，以阐明有效的保护措施。