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Recent increases in wild boar populations in central Europe necessitated an evaluation of the current reproductive performance of this species. During a 2-year study, samples of ovaries and uteri were taken from wild boars from areas in the (northern) state of Lower Saxony and the (more southern) Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, in which wild boar have been vaccinated against classical swine fever (CSF) after several outbreaks of the disease. Serum samples were also analyzed to determine the prevalence of diseases that may influence pig reproduction and fertility. While there was a striking seasonality of reproductive performance, especially among older animals, mating was delayed in up to 15% of piglets and yearlings, leading to a second peak of farrowing from June to August. Depending on the area, between 60 and 70% of the piglets were most likely to become pregnant during the main period of reproduction, while another two thirds of the remaining individuals farrowed by the summer, which was the case in the mountainous areas. The arithmetic mean number of fetuses were 6.29 per piglet, 6.67 per yearling, and 7.64 per adult for wild boar in Eastern Lower Saxony; 4.58 per piglet and 4.63 per yearling and 6.56 per adult for wild boar in the Western Eifel and 4.77 per yearling and 6.50 per adult in the Palatine Forest, as the number of pregnant piglets has been too low to calculate an arithmetic mean in this area. The numbers of Lower Saxony wild boar fetuses per individual exceed previously known values. The results indicate that exogenous factors have a strong impact on both reproductive seasonality and the percentage of reproducing individuals in an age group. Ovulation rates, numbers of fetuses, and prevalence of pregnancies were found to be high among all age groups, while early onset of puberty and high pregnancy rates were typical of young animals (yearlings). The influence of some important reproductive diseases like Aujeszky's disease, Brucellosis, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, porcine parvovirosis, and CSF on wild boar reproduction and fertility was tested and found to be at least of minor interest for the reproductive outcome of the species.

The population density of wild boars in Lower Saxony, Germany, has increased drastically during the last decade. High wild boar density causes severe damage to crops and increases the risk of occurrence and distribution of the Classical Swine Fever disease (CSF). Consequently, a reduction of the population density by hunting wild boar in hog cholera zones is necessary. An effective hunting method is the drive hunt performed with beaters, hunters and dogs (terriers), which force wild boars to leave their resting sites. Drive hunt, however, increases the risk of spreading wild boars over a wider area, and this leads to a greater risk of infecting other wild boars with the CSF‐virus. Since 1998, ecological and behavioural data of a wild boar population in Lower Saxony, Germany, have been collected. Based on telemetric observations, data of home range size, habitat use and daily and nightly movements were collected. We investigated the effects of several drive hunts on the movements of seven radio‐marked wild boar groups, and analysed 10 hunting situations and wild boar escape behaviour. In spite of heavy hunting pressure, in six of the 10 hunting situations, the escaping wild boar groups remained within their home range; in four hunting situations, the wild boar groups left their core area after the drive hunt and relocated up to 6 km away. But after four to six weeks at the latest, the groups had returned to the centres of their home ranges.

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