Letting the cat out of the isolated bag

The European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) once inhabited forests throughout most of central and southern Europe. Today, their populations are sparse and heavily isolated due to former human persecution, and the ongoing fragmentation of habitat in Europe, in particular in Germany. The increasing isolation of populations, however, disrupts movement pathways of the wildcat, which leads to increased local competition for resources and disruption of gene flow between populations, only to mention a few negative effects. Based on these imminent risks, the environmental NGO BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) initiated the project “The Safety Net for the European Wildcat” in 2004 to increase habitat connectivity via habitat corridors between wildcat populations. The ultimate goal of the project is to establish a network of continuous forest with a length of 20,000 kilometers.

In a first step to reach this ambitious goal, the BUND created a wildcat pathway plan, which was based on cost-distance-analyses to determine optimal connection routes between forests with wildcat populations and other suitable wildcat habitats. In 2007, the relocation of a highway served as a starting signal to launch the second phase of the project and the first corridor consisting of 5,000 deciduous and evergreen trees was planted in order to reconnect the Hainich National Park with the Thuringian Forest.

Only five years after planting, the first wildcats were proven to use the corridor. Following this initial success, 40,000 more trees have been planted to create two additional corridors in Rhineland-Palatinate and Lower Saxony. Although the wildcat is the target species of the initiative, many other species (e.g. the European otter or the reintroduced lynx) will benefit from the established corridors, thereby improving the health of the entire forest ecosystem.