Diet, food availability and reproduction of wild boar in a Mediterranean coastal areaGiovanna MASSEI, Peter V. GENOV and Brian W. STAINES Massei G., Genov P. V. and Staines B. W. 1996. Diet, food availability and reproduction of wild boar in a Mediterranean coastal area. Acta Theriologica 41: 307-320.The diet of the wild boar Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758 in a Mediterranean area, where agricultural crops were not available and supplementary food was not provided, is described. Diet was compared to the availability of the main food resources and their influence on body weight and reproduction was investigated from 1991 to 1994. Diet varied according to the availability of energy-rich foods such as acorns and olives; pine-seeds were actively consumed, even when their availability was low. When abundant, acorns and olives accounted for most of the diet, and when scarce were replaced by graminoids and juniper berries. In summer, graminoids and pine-seeds accounted for most of the diet. Acorn and olive production was likely to influence both body weight and reproduction. Following a high production of acorns and olives, wild boar exhibited higher body weight, more breeding females and a larger litter size than in years of poor production of these foods.
With 4 figures in the text)This paper analyses the temporal variation in the size of home range and activity of adult wild boar (Sus scrofff L.). Eighteen boar were radiotracked between 1991 and 1993 in the Marernma Natural Park (Central Italy). Variations of home-range size and activity were related to sex, winter food availability and population density. The hypotheses that home-range size was inversely related to food availability and population density, and that the amount of activity was directly related to population density and inversely related to food abundance, were tested. The size of the acorn crop was used as a measure of winter resource level. No differences were found in the size of ranges, core area, and activity between males and females. In 1991-92 home-range size was larger than in 1992-93; conversely, activity increased from 1991-92 to 1992-93. Winter food availability was high in 1991-92 and low in the following year. Population density increased greatly in spring 1992 but crashed in spring and summer 1993, when a high mortality of wild boar occurred due to starvation.The decrease in home-range size during the food shortage was explained as a possible strategy adopted by wild boar to cope with starvation. The difference in home-range size and amount of activity found between the first and the second year of study were probably influenced by differences in population density, although the individual effects of food availability and population density were not clearly separable.
Examination was made of 192 wild boar stomachs (Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758) collected during the period from April 1975 to March 1977 in several areas an northeastern and western Poland. The entire stomach contents were weighed, then mixed in a bucket, after which a 1-litre sample was taken and fixed in 5% formalin. Sixty percent of the total stomach contents was analyzed. The percentages of wet plant and animal masses of food were determined, and the composition of the food examined in detail. The wild boar's food includes 131 species (or higher taxons) of plants and animals. It consumes 73 species (or higher taxons) of plants, among which there are 59 plants of forest and meadow associations and 14 species of cultivated plants. Its animal food was found to comprise 57 species (or higher taxons), 45 of which were invertebrates and 12 vertebrates. The wild boar also consumes carrion. Although the wild boar is an omnivorous animal, plants form 91% of the total mass of its food, and of this 71®/o consists of cultivated plants. Animal food (9% of the total food mass) is consumed only an natural habitats and over the course of the whole year.
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