Lynx eats cat: disease risk assessment during an Iberian lynx intraguild predation
Publicated to:European Journal Of Wildlife Research. 65 (3): 39- - 2019-06-01 65(3), DOI: 10.1007/s10344-019-1275-5
Authors: Nájera F; Sánchez-Cuerda S; López G; Del Rey-Wamba T; Rueda C; Vallverdú-Coll N; Panadero J; Palacios M; López-Bao J; Jiménez J
Affiliations
Abstract
© 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. Lethal interactions between members of the carnivore guild are well represented in literature. In the Iberian lynx, interspecific killing (without prey consumption) of some mesocarnivores, such as the Egyptian mongoose, genet, and red fox, has been reported. Although vaguely documented, evidence suggests feral cats fall victim to interactions with this apex predator. Here, we describe the first documented case of interspecific killing and partial consumption of a feral cat by an adult male Iberian lynx reintroduced in Southwestern Spain. Ulterior analyses demonstrated that the victim was viremic to feline leukemia virus. To prevent the dissemination of the virus and a potential outbreak in the Iberian lynx population, control measures, including the clinical evaluation of the male Iberian lynx, and intensive monitoring were implemented in order to detect intraspecific interactions. After 3 weeks, the lynx was evaluated, presented good condition and resulted negative to both ELISA and RT-PCR. Thanks to the long-term monitoring, this case could be detected and measures to prevent an outbreak could be implemented.
Keywords
Quality index
Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal European Journal Of Wildlife Research due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2019, it was in position 70/169, thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Zoology. Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q2 para la agencia Scopus (SJR) en la categoría Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 2.29, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-10, the following number of citations:
- Scopus: 12
- OpenCitations: 10