PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles OPEN ACCESS online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Communication Iberian Lynx Lynx pardinus Temminck, 1827 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in central Spain: trophic niche of an isolated population Pedro Alfaya Herbello, Ariadna Invernón & Germán Alonso SMALL WILD CATS 17 February 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 2 | Pages: 15229–15237 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5506.12.2.15229-15237 SPECIAL ISSUE For Focus, Scope, Aims, Policies, and Guidelines visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-0 For Artcle Submission Guidelines, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions For Policies against Scientfc Misconduct, visit htps://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/about/editorialPolicies#custom-2 For reprints, contact <[email protected]> The opinions expressed by the authors do not refect the views of the Journal of Threatened Taxa, Wildlife Informaton Liaison Development Society, Zoo Outreach Organizaton, or any of the partners. The journal, the publisher, the host, and the part- Publisher & Host ners are not responsible for the accuracy of the politcal boundaries shown in the maps by the authors. Member Threatened Taxa Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 17 February 2020 | 12(2): 15229–15237 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5506.12.2.15229-15237 #5506 | Received 28 October 2019 | Final received 25 January 2020 | Finally accepted 10 February 2020 C o m Iberian Lynx Lynx pardinus Temminck, 1827 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) m u n in central Spain: trophic niche of an isolated populaton i c 1 2 3 a Pedro Alfaya , Ariadna Invernón & Germán Alonso t i 1,2,3 Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evoluton, Complutense University of Madrid. Avda. José Antonio Nováis 12, o 28040 Madrid, Spain. n 1 [email protected] (correspondence author), 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected] Abstract: Understanding predator-prey relatonships is fundamental to develop efectve conservaton plans. Between 2015 and 2018, we combed 21 transects, each 7km long, searching for Iberian Lynx Lynx pardinus scat within the province of Madrid in central Spain. In order to minimise inherent subjectvity of visual identfcaton as much as possible, we performed a double specifc nested polymerase chain reacton (PCR) followed by a primer extension assay addressed to two Iberian Lynx diagnostc single nucleotde polymorphisms. Forty-six scat samples were positvely identfed as belonging to Iberian Lynx through genetc analysis. From these, we extracted remains of consumed prey, which we determined to the lowest possible taxonomic level, mainly through hair identfcaton. Identfed prey was divided into four types: lagomorphs, small mammals, birds, and ungulates. The species’ diet compositon was described based on the frequency of occurrence (FO) of each prey and niche breadth, and also compared with prior knowledge of the species using four prior studies as a comparatve reference through the calculaton of the niche overlap value. The FO of lagomorphs (39%) was the lowest, while the FO of small mammals (54%) was the highest recorded to date. The niche breath (0.36) was higher than recorded in prior studies, but stll showing the specialist character of the Iberian Lynx. Niche overlap was low (C = 0.49), showing diferences in trophic niche between the populaton in our study area and the one studied in southern Spain. This indicates that the Iberian Lynx is adept at switching its main prey, an ability that has previously been frmly rejected. It is, however, capable of adaptng to alternatve prey more ofen than recorded to date, which could be a behavioural response to the patchy distributon of European Rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus in the study area. Keywords: Diet, lagomorphs, niche breadth, niche overlap, single nucleotde polymorphism. Editor: Angie Appel, Wild Cat Network, Bad Marienberg, Germany. Date of publicaton: 17 January 2020 (online & print) Citaton: Alfaya, P., A. Invernon & G. Alonso (2020). Iberian Lynx Lynx pardinus Temminck 1827 (Carnivora: Felidae) in central Spain: trophic niche of an isolated populaton. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(2): 15229–15237. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5506.12.2.15229-15237 Copyright: © Alfaya et al. 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton. Funding: Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests. Author details: Pedro Alfaya is a honorary research fellow in the Ecology Department of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is interested in species conservaton, landscape ecology and statstcal modelling, but currently he is working on environmental impact consultng. Ariadna Invernón: she is a Msc in ecology and collaborator of the Ecology Department of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Germán Alonso is a lecturer of Ecology in the Universidad Complutense Madrid. He has alternated his research actvity with public positons, being always linked to environmental conservaton, landscape ecology and land management. Author contributon: PA made the bibliographic review, statstcal analysis, wrote the manuscript and partcipated in scat collecton. AI designed and carried out the identfcaton of scat samples content. GA provides support and experience in feld work, identfcaton of scat content and also reviewed the manuscript. Acknowledgements: We thank the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (16MNSV002) for funding our study. We also appreciate the efort of Pilar, Beatriz, and Alejandra for their hard work in the laboratory, and also to Javier and Jorge for their assistance in the feldwork. 15229 J TT Iberian Lynx in central Spain Alfaya et al. INTRODUCTION of each resource used with regard to total consumed resources (Smith 1982). Therefore, a species that uses The Iberian Lynx Lynx pardinus is endemic to the a wide range of trophic resources in a similar proporton Iberian peninsula (Rodríguez & Delibes 1992), and is will show a high niche breadth and, consequently, regarded as a trophic super specialist (Ferrer & Negro will be regarded as a generalist for studied resources 2004). Since the 1950s, the Iberian Lynx populaton has (Symondson et al. 2002). On the contrary, a species that declined contnuously (Valverde 1963; Cabezas-Díaz et uses a high proporton of a narrow range of resources al. 2009). Only 93 individuals were recorded in 2002 will be regarded as a specialist (Shipley et al. 2009). (Guzmán et al. 2004). Following conservaton measures Rodríguez & Delibes (1992) were the last authors such as reintroductons of captve-bred Iberian Lynxes who reported an Iberian Lynx populaton in the province in southern Spain, this populaton experienced a of Madrid before Cruz et al. (2019). The territorial and constant growth (Simón et al. 2011; Rodríguez & Calzada solitary behaviour of the Iberian Lynx (San Miguel 2006; 2015), reaching 589 individuals in 2017 (Simón 2018). Calzada et al. 2007; Martn et al. 2007) results in a low- Furthermore, Cruz et al. (2019) confrmed the presence density spatal organizaton that makes it extremely of Iberian Lynxes outside the currently known range of difcult to fnd and track (Alfaya et al. 2019). The central the species in the southern Iberian peninsula, suggestng Spanish populaton was already small in the early 1990s the contnued existence of a stable populaton in central (Rodríguez & Delibes 1992), remained elusive and was Spain within the province of Madrid. not considered in conservaton programs initated The diet of a species is a fundamental aspect of its in 2002 (Rodríguez & Calzada 2015) that lead to the ecology that depends mainly on the abundance and recovery of the populaton in southern Spain (Simón availability of prey types (Terraube & Arroyo 2011), but 2018). also on learning and experience of individuals (Shipley et Diferent studies carried out in Doñana Natonal al. 2009). A widespread phenomenon in many vertebrate Park and in Sierra Morena showed that the European and invertebrate taxa (Bolnick et al. 2003) is the so- Rabbit is its main prey, being present in 70–99% of called ‘niche variaton hypothesis’. This occurs when analysed samples (Delibes 1980; Beltrán & Delibes 1991; some co-occurring individuals of a species actvely select Palomares et al. 2001; Gil-Sánchez et al. 2006). The diferent prey types in their shared environment (Araujo Iberian Lynx, however, also consumes other prey species et al. 2011). The niche variaton could be a response to in lower proportons, but their relatve importance two main factors: (i) change in environmental conditons increases when the availability of Rabbits decreases that afects prey availability and prompts all individuals (Beltrán et al. 1985; Beltrán & Delibes 1991).