Harmonization of the use of hunting statistics for wild boar density estimation in different study areas

Abstract

Hunting statistics can be suitable to determine wild boar density estimates if a calibration with an accepted rigorous method is performed. Here, densities calculated from drive counts during collective drive hunting activities are compared against density values calculated by camera trapping using the random encounter method. For this purpose, we selected 10 study sites in Spain, from North to South representing a diversity of habitats, management and hunting traditions without artificial feeding, plus one study site in Czech Republic where artificial feeding was practiced. Density values estimated from both drive counts and camera trapping were strongly positively correlated (R 2 =0.84 and 0.87 for linear and non-linear models, respectively) and showed a good agreement. Drive counts data might be therefore used as a density estimate to calibrate models for estimating density in large areas and potentially, to compare densities among areas. For these purposes, there is still the need to harmonise hunting data collection across Europe to make them usable at a large scale. Our results need to be confirmed across a wider number of European populations to provide valid geographical wild boar density predictions across Europe.

Assessing the camera trap methodologies used to estimate density of unmarked populations

“…As a result, camera trapping methods are increasingly core tools for wildlife population monitoring (e.g. for wild boar at the European level, ENETWILD-consortium et al, 2019).…”

Forest resilience to global warming is strongly modulated by local‐scale topographic, microclimatic and biotic conditions

“…Management efforts to control increasing populations of wild boar and roe deer often obtain limited results, due to multiple logistic limitations and social barriers impeding an optimal human hunting pressure (Giménez-Anaya et al, 2020;González-Crespo et al, 2018;Massei et al, 2015;Vicente et al, 2019).…”

Long-Term Determinants of Tuberculosis in the Ungulate Host Community of Doñana National Park

“…This research illustrates that the understanding of the main determinants of the maintenance and spread of a pathogen in wildlife, livestock and human populations requires integrated wildlife monitoring. This includes the so called "denominator" (or population) information [79,80].…”