Selection of trees for rubbing by the wild boar (Sus scrofa) in the Sidi Boughaba forested Moroccan Ramsar site: Assessment, implications, and perspectives

Abstract

Knowledge of mechanisms by which large mammals select rubbing trees (RT) is a major challenge for the effective management of forests and wildlife resources. In this study, we investigated this issue regarding the wild boar (Sus scrofa) in the Moroccan forested site of Sidi Boughaba as a case study. We used data from four sets of variables, namely topography, forest type, landscape composition, and microhabitat, measured at 58 rub and control trees, to determine the factors associated with the occurrence of RT by means of generalized linear mixed models. Our results showed that the RT occurrence increased with a high density of red juniper trees and declined with a distance to the nearest footpath. The variation partitioning analysis revealed that the pure fraction of microhabitat was the most robust in explaining this occurrence (adj. R 2 = 0.17, P < 0.001), followed by that of forest type (adj. R 2 = 0.05, P < 0.05). A scientific monitoring system must be set up to strike a balance between the availability of forest trees on the one hand and the pressure exerted by wild boars in this internationally important site on the other. It is imperative to test the geographical generality of our results in other Mediterranean forests.