Dubiner Shahar, Namir Itai, Chen Ron, Levin Eran
School of Zoology Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv Israel.
Hamaarag-Israel's National Nature Assessment Program, The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv Israel.
Ecol Evol. 2023 Jul 3;13(7):e10261. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10261. eCollection 2023 Jul.
Camouflage is a common trait enabling animals to avoid detection by predators and prey. Patterns such as spots and stripes are convergent across carnivore families, including felids, and are hypothesized to have adaptive value through camouflage. House cats () were domesticated thousands of years ago, but despite artificial selection for a wide variety of coat colors, the wild-type pattern of tabby cats is very common. We aimed to determine whether this pattern grants an advantage over other morphs in natural environments. We collected cat images taken with camera traps in natural areas near and far from 38 rural settlements in Israel, to compare the habitat use by feral cats of different colors. We tested the effect of proximity to villages and habitat vegetation (normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI) on the probability of space use by the tabby morph compared to the others. NDVI had a positive effect on site use in both morphs, but non-tabby cats had a 2.1 higher probability of using the near sites than the far sites, independent of NDVI. The wild-type tabby cats' probability of site use were equally likely to be unaffected by proximity, or have an interaction of proximity with NDVI whereby the far transects are used with increasing probability in sites of denser vegetation. We hypothesize that the camouflage of tabby cats, more than other colors and patterns, confers an advantage in roaming the woodland habitats for which this pattern evolved. This has both theoretical implications as rare empirical evidence of the adaptive value of fur coloration, and practical implications on managing the ecological impact of feral cats worldwide.
伪装是一种常见特征，能使动物避免被捕食者和猎物发现。斑点和条纹等图案在包括猫科动物在内的食肉动物家族中趋同，据推测具有通过伪装实现的适应性价值。家猫（）在数千年前就已被驯化，但尽管人们对各种各样的毛色进行了人工选择，虎斑猫的野生型图案却非常常见。我们旨在确定这种图案在自然环境中是否比其他形态具有优势。我们收集了在以色列38个乡村定居点附近和远处自然区域用相机陷阱拍摄的猫的图像，以比较不同颜色的野猫对栖息地的利用情况。我们测试了与村庄的距离和栖息地植被（归一化植被指数，NDVI）对虎斑形态与其他形态相比空间利用概率的影响。NDVI对两种形态的场地利用都有积极影响，但非虎斑猫使用近处场地的概率比远处场地高2.1倍，与NDVI无关。野生型虎斑猫的场地利用概率同样可能不受距离影响，或者存在距离与NDVI的相互作用，即随着植被密度增加，远处样带被利用的概率也增加。我们推测，与其他颜色和图案相比，虎斑猫的伪装在其进化出这种图案的林地栖息地漫游中具有优势。这既具有理论意义，作为毛色适应性价值的罕见实证证据，也对全球野猫生态影响的管理具有实际意义。
