Mortality Record of Caracal and Habitat Loss for Wildcat, Depending on Catastrophic Wildfires of Year 2021 in Southwestern Turkey

Abstract

The fires that occur in Southwestern Turkey in July and August 2021 were recorded as the biggest fires in the history of the Republic for the region. The burned forest area is more than 66 000 hectares. This study aims to evaluate the situation of wildlife after catastrophic wildfires in terms of unique felids of the region: caracal (Caracal caracal) and wildcat (Felis silvestris). Study was conducted using empirical techniques at fire sites in Mugla province of Turkey during eighteen days in August 2021. Two transects were identified for each four fire effected zone as "burned" and "unburned" site. Total distance covered by vehicle transect was 2000 km with four repeated interval during the survey. It has been figured out that wildfires effecting large mammals and felids in two ways as direct (deaths caused by fire) and indirect effect (habitat loss, fire migration and releated deaths). 194 individual recorded as indirectly effected and 11 individual (9 wildboar, 2 Southwest Asian badger) recorded as directly effected by the wildfires. 5 caracal were recorded during fire migration. A caracal carcass was found on highway. The caracal population in the region survived the fires with the least damage. On the other hand, wildcat habitats were completly burned during the fires. Although recolonization after massive wildfires is a natural succession process for many large herbivores and carnivores, Mediterrenaen wildcats of Anatolia could be an exception. They have very isolated and fragile population in Mugla. Wildlife corridors sould be planned to support post-fire succession and wildcat colonisation of burned site. In order to investigate this situation, temporal and spatial habitat use and diet analyzes are planned for caracal and wild cat for the next step.