Spatiotemporal behavioral plasticity of wild boar (<i>Sus scrofa</i>) under contrasting conditions of human pressure: primeval forest and metropolitan area

Podgórski, Tomasz; Baś, Grzegorz; Jędrzejewska, Bogumiła; Sönnichsen, Leif; Śnieżko, Stanisław; Jędrzejewski, Włodzimierz; Okarma, Henryk

doi:10.1644/12-mamm-a-038.1

Cited by 224 publications

(196 citation statements)

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“…This capacity of wild boar to face environmental fluctuations confirms the broad ecological niche of the species (Dardaillon 1986;Heinze et al 2011;Podgórski et al 2013;Schley and Roper 2003).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

“…The species has indeed expanded its distribution in the Northern Hemisphere, by re-colonizing Fenno-Scandinavian and Baltic territories (Erkinaro et al 1982;Rosvold and Andersen 2008;Veeroja and Männil 2014), but has also gained areas in agricultural (Herrero et al 2006;Keuling et al 2009), mountainous (Baubet et al 2004;Sarasa 2013) and peri-urban (Cahill and Llimona 2004;Cahill et al 2012) environments. Owing to its diet (Schley and Roper 2003), spatial behaviour (Podgórski et al 2013) and life strategy (Gamelon et al 2013) plasticity, the species can indeed easily cope within these fluctuating environments. In wild boar, it seems that the strategy adopted to cope with seasonal changes is based on their movement abilities (Morelle et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seasonal variations of wild boar Sus scrofa distribution in agricultural landscapes: a species distribution modelling approach

Мorelle

Lejeune

2014

Eur J Wildl Res

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Seasonal changes in the distribution of animals can have an important impact on the ecosystem. In agricultural landscapes, the seasonal movement of the wild boar Sus scrofa towards field crops often results in damages and makes control of the population difficult. The plasticity of the species to cope with different habitats is largely proven, but the environmental and human drivers of this seasonal habitat shift at the population scale remain largely unknown. Using MaxEnt and two seasonally distinct presence datasets, we contrasted the distribution of wild boar in southern Belgium during the growing and hunting seasons to (i) analyse seasonal drivers of the distribution and (ii) forecast the potential spread of the species north to its current distribution. We demonstrated that during the growing season, wild boar range almost double, owing to the cover and food provided by agricultural areas, thereby enhancing the movement and spread of the species. We found that the seasonal distribution of wild boar in agricultural lands is mostly influenced by the search for cover and food provided alternatively by forest and field crops. Interestingly, it seems that this search for cover operates under the constraint of a threshold distance. Our results indeed reveal an increased probability of presence not only in the vicinity of forests but also above a threshold distance of 865 m from the forest edge, suggesting that wild boar can overcome the dependence to forest cover. The forecast distribution of wild boar highlighted a potential increase of the current range into suitable habitat between 63 and 168 km 2 . To counteract the potential spread of the species into agricultural habitats and the consecutive damages, we insist on the need for the development of integrated management strategies, combining land use spatial configuration and wild boar spatial behaviour.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal variations of wild boar Sus scrofa distribution in agricultural landscapes: a species distribution modelling approach

Мorelle

Lejeune

2014

Eur J Wildl Res

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“…The dense stand A with a low shrub layer showed the highest impact of small mammals, while the stand C with a low density of mature trees and a rich undergrowth in the higher height/age classes (exceeding 50 cm) showed the highest impact by large animals. We assume that a shelter extends the duration of animal activities (Podgórski et al 2013, Thurfjell et al 2013. Therefore, the proportion of acorns consumed by ungulates in a safe place was significantly higher.…”

Section: Wild Boar Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of seed predation and browsing on natural sessile oak regeneration under different light conditions in an over-aged coppice stand

Kamler¹,

Dobrovolný²,

Drimaj³

et al. 2016

iForest

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(1) Sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) is one of the most important commercial species cultivated at low altitudes in the Czech Republic, and overaged coppices are a significant part of oak stands in the region. In order to secure a high-valuable timber production (e.g., through conversion of such stands into coppices-with-standards), knowledge of the potential and limits of generative regeneration is essential. This study was conducted in three oakdominated over-aged coppice stands in different stages of conversion into coppices-with-standards and characterized by different basal area (BA, from 9.3 to 14.1 m 2 ha -1 ) and relative diffuse radiation (ISF, from 12.1 to 35.5%). The study stands were compared with respect to seed predation following acorn fall and oak regeneration parameters. At the time of their fall the acorns represented a sought-after source of food for large mammals (particularly wild boar). At the end of acorn fall, 13-67% acorns were lost due to animal predation. A control evaluation conducted the following spring revealed a decrease of 92-97% in fallen acorns. Despite the major animal impact, a high reserve of acorns and saplings remained in the stands (4 600-29 000 acorns and 66 000-310 000 saplings per ha). With increasing light intensity the oak regeneration density decreased, while the height and age variability of oak regeneration increased. Although saplings were capable of surviving several years under unfavorable light conditions (even below 12% ISF), they require a minimum of 20% ISF (i.e., BA < 16 m 2 ha -1 ) to achieve sustainable height increment. Based on our results, for conversion of such stands into coppices-with-standards we recommend a maximum of 200 reserved trees (BA = 16 m 2 ha -1 ) to achieve successful height growth of the understorey.

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“…Wild boar (Sus scrofa), a social mammal with a growing population throughout Europe (Massei et al, 2015;Keuling et al, 2016), is increasingly present in urban areas (Dinter, 1991;Cahill et al, 2003Cahill et al, , 2012Jansen et al, 2007;Podgorski et al, 2013). Wild boar frequently interfere with people, as they annoy garden owners (e.g., by rooting), can destroy agricultural crops (Amici et al, 2012;Ficetola et al, 2014;Jarolimek et al, 2014;Laznik and Trdan, 2014) and are potential transmitters of zoonotic diseases or diseases relevant to livestock (Fernández et al, 2006;Jansen et al, 2007;Chiari et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, studying wild boar assists local authorities to develop appropriate management tools to minimize human-wildlife conflicts. Despite numerous studies on wild boar demonstrated substantial variation in home range size and kinetics of movements in natural and agricultural landscapes (Dardaillon and Beugnon, 1987;Cousse et al, 1992;Janeau et al, 1995;Thurfjell et al, 2013;Jarolimek et al, 2014;Morelle et al, 2014Morelle et al, , 2015, studies of urban wild boar are rare (Cahill et al, 2003(Cahill et al, , 2012Podgorski et al, 2013;Stillfried et al, 2017a,b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Secrets of Success in a Landscape of Fear: Urban Wild Boar Adjust Risk Perception and Tolerate Disturbance

et al. 2017

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In urban areas with a high level of human disturbance, wildlife has to adjust its behavior to deal with the so called "landscape of fear." This can be studied in risk perception during movement in relation to specific habitat types, whereby individuals trade-off between foraging and disturbance. Due to its high behavioral plasticity and increasing occurrence in urban environments, wild boar (Sus scrofa) is an excellent model organism to study adjustment to urbanization. With the help of GPS tracking, space use of 11 wild boar from Berlin's metropolitan region was analyzed: we aimed at understanding how animals adjust space use to deal with the landscape of fear in urban areas compared to rural areas. We compared use vs. availability with help of generalized linear mixed models. First, we studied landscape types selected by rural vs. urban wild boar, second, we analyzed distances of wild boar locations to each of the landscape types. Finally, we mapped the resulting habitat selection probability to predict hotspots of human-wildlife conflicts. A higher tolerance to disturbance in urban wild boar was shown by a one third shorter flight distance and by an increased re-use of areas close to the trap. Urban wild boar had a strong preference for natural landscapes such as swamp areas, green areas and deciduous forests, and areas with high primary productivity, as indicated by high NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) values. The areas selected by urban wild boar were often located closely to roads and houses. The spatial distribution maps show that a large area of Berlin would be suitable for urban wild boar but not their rural conspecifics, with the most likely reason being a different perception of anthropogenic disturbance. Wild boar therefore showed considerable behavioral plasticity suitable to adjust to human-dominated environments in a potentially evolutionarily adaptive manner.

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Spatiotemporal behavioral plasticity of wild boar (Sus scrofa) under contrasting conditions of human pressure: primeval forest and metropolitan area

Cited by 224 publications

References 50 publications

Seasonal variations of wild boar Sus scrofa distribution in agricultural landscapes: a species distribution modelling approach

Seasonal variations of wild boar Sus scrofa distribution in agricultural landscapes: a species distribution modelling approach

The impact of seed predation and browsing on natural sessile oak regeneration under different light conditions in an over-aged coppice stand

Secrets of Success in a Landscape of Fear: Urban Wild Boar Adjust Risk Perception and Tolerate Disturbance

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