Humans and traffic influence European wildcat behaviour in pastoral landscapes

Human activities and infrastructures can disturb wildlife and alter their behaviour by triggering antipredator responses such as changes in time allocation to different behaviours. For instance, disturbance sources like traffic can cause significant variation in allocation of time to vigilance and foraging behaviours, which can be used as sensitive measures of the effects of human disturbance on animals. Such changes may ultimately result in physiological and ecological costs for the species. We used a unique opportunity to obtain direct behavioural observations of European wildcats, Felis silvestris, in the Cantabrian Mountains (northwest Spain) to investigate how different sources of anthropogenic disturbance influence time allocation of wildcats to specific behaviours. We also analysed how traffic affects hunting and vigilance time budgets as well as hunting success. We found that wildcats allocated more time to being alert and less time to hunting, feeding and moving in the presence of humans than in undisturbed situations. Wildcats also allocated more time to hunting when traffic levels were high, near roads and further from villages. Similarly, they dedicated more time to vigilance behaviours while feeding in the presence of moving vehicles. Finally, hunting success in the presence of vehicles seemed to decrease more for female wildcats than for males although this effect was not significant. In conclusion, humans and traffic influence the behaviour of wildcats inhabiting pastoral anthropogenic landscapes, although it is difficult to know to what extent such changes may translate into demographic effects. (c) 2023 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.