Research overview: landscape genetics methods for urban felid connectivity
Landscape genetics, combining molecular markers with spatial models, has become essential for detecting how roads and development fragment felid populations and for prioritising connectivity. This overview synthesises methodological advances from microsatellites to genomic SNP datasets, the use of resistance-surface and gene-flow modelling, and applications revealing freeway-driven genetic breaks in bobcats and pumas around Los Angeles and caracals near Cape Town. It examines how genetic monitoring tracks the success of crossings and corridors and informs genetic-rescue decisions. The synthesis frames landscape genetics as the analytical engine behind much of the connectivity science guiding urban felid conservation.
Category:urban-wildcat-ecology
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