Situación del gato montés europeo (Felis silvestris) en la provincia de Cádiz

The situation of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) in the Iberian Peninsula differs between the northern populations, mostly healthy, and the centre-southern populations, with mainly regressive trends or scarcely known situations. Cádiz province is one of these zones where the species situation is little known. Therefore, we aimed with this work to assess the situation of the European wildcat in the province of Cádiz, through the study focussed on public and private estates in the natural parks of Los Alcornocales and Sierra de Grazalema. We employed several methodologies to detect the species: 1) camera-trapping (240 camera with attractants), 2) information of historical records by searching the bibliography and on the internet, 3) a questionnaire to environmental rangers (Agentes de Medio Ambiente) of the whole province on the presence of wildcat and other mesocarnivores, and 4) data on road kills of carnivores occurring on provincial roads. During the five years of study (2018-2023) we obtained 5,184 independent records of mesocarnivores from camera-trapping, including eight wild and one domestic species, but no wildcat records. The most recent reliable records found corresponded to year 2000, in agreement with the results from the questionnaire to environmental rangers. We did neither find road kill records of the species on provincial roads during the last three years. According to the results from the different methodologies, we conclude that the Cádiz wildcat population could either be already extinct or close to extinction.