Wild pigs are found to be the most prolific, very intelligent and secretive. These animals are adaptive ecological generalists and survive in wide range of habitats worldwide. The reproductive traits of wild pigs are extraordinary showing high prolificacy. Corticosteroids can exert inhibitory and facilitory effects on reproduction. In order to assess the attributable stress on reproduction a non-invasive method of assessing faecal glucocorticoid metabolites was applied in this study. Samples from wild pigs from three different regions were collected and were subjected to Enzyme Linked Imuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effect of stress on reproduction in wild pigs. Corticosteroids may act at the level of the ovary to suppress aromatase activity and thereby reduce the elevated circulating estrogens considered by many to be responsible for hyper secretion of Lutenizing Hormone (LH). Interestingly the acute level of stress is found to be facilitory and the chronic found to be inhibitory.

The study was carried out to assess the faecal cortisol concentration in wild pigs entering the agricultural fields around the forest and in domestic pigs comprising of desi pigs and cross bred pigs, in order to arrive at the baseline values pointing to stress factors. The adjoining areas of Mudumalai wildlife region, Sathyamangalam wildlife region and Anamalai wildlife region of Tamil Nadu, India were included in this study programme. The documentation of the quantifiable meteorological factors in the identified conflict areas was done.The mean faecal cortisol concentration in the case of wild pigs that entered in the agricultural fields adjoining the Mudumalai wildlife region, Sathyamangalam and Anamalai region were found using ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay). The mean faecal cortisol concentration of desi pigs as well as cross bred pigs was also documented to be used as primary and secondary control values. The occurrences of conflict were also classified as low, medium and high based on the intensity.Suitable management related measures were recommended pertaining to the findings observed in this study like increased mean faecal cortisol concentration in wild pigs, comparative wild pig-human conflicts pertaining to the variations in the meteorological factors of the areas were studied. The findings demonstrated that fecal glucocorticoid assays provide an index of physiological stress in wild pigs and may prove useful in addressing conservation and conflict issues.

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are the most widely distributed invasive wild ungulate in the United States, yet the factors that influence wild pig dispersal and colonization at the regional level are poorly understood. Our objective was to use a population genetic approach to describe patterns of dispersal and colo-nization among populations to gain a greater understanding of the invasion process contributing to the expansion of this species. We used 52 microsatellite loci to produce individual genotypes for 482 swine sampled at 39 locations between 2014 and 2016. Our data revealed the existence of genetically distinct subpopulations (F ST = 0.1170, p \ 0.05). We found evidence of both fine-scale subdivision among the sampling locations, as well as evidence of long term genetic isolation. Several locations exhibited significant admixture (interbreeding) suggesting frequent mixing of individuals among locations; up to 14% of animals were immigrants from other populations. This pattern of admixture suggested successive rounds of human-assisted translocation and subsequent expansion across Florida. We also found evidence of genetically distinct populations that were isolated from nearby populations, suggesting recent Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-018-1667-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.