Camera trapping of weasel family (Mustelidae) and wildcat, Felis silvestris, in the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park: a three-year survey

The Natural History Museum of Venice had been assigned to conduct a camera trapping survey within the project “Monitoring the biodiversity in the alpine environment”, which was carried out by the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park with the financing of the Ministry of Environment. The aim of the survey has been to expand the knowledge about the presence and the distribution of weasel family (Mustelidae), as well as to determine the presence of the wildcat, Felis silvestris Schreber, 1977. This survey was been conducted for three years, from 2013 to 2015, and it overall interested twelve study areas, which have been chosen among the protected area according to environmental suitability, geographic position, accessibility, absence of historical data and also verification of the data we obtained during the study. The camera trapping stations, whose number was determined by the extension of the study areas, were placed on attraction sites. The information obtained during the three-year survey has allowed to complement the limited, fragmented knowledge about the distribution of weasel family in the Park, as well as to ascertain the presence of the wildcat for two consecutive years in the same areas. This data, together with other recent reportings beyond the borders of the protected area, is supposed to confirm the spread of the wildcat’s population towards North-West as well as the possible presence of a resident population in the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park. This data is therefore going to open new hypothesis about the status and the distribution of this most interesting carnivorous in Belluno province.