How do conditions at birth influence early‐life growth rates in wild boar?

Veylit, Lara; Sæther, Bernt‐Erik; Gaillard, Jean‐Michel; Baubet, Éric; Gamelon, Marlène

doi:10.1002/ecs2.3167

Cited by 7 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Weather conditions (e.g. temperature) can also influence the probability for a female to reach a heavier body mass class during the year, especially for small females (Veylit et al 2020). Since mortality (from both hunting and natural causes) and reproductive output vary substantially according to body mass (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient use of harvest data: a size‐class‐structured integrated population model for exploited populations

et al. 2021

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Many animal populations are subject to hunting or fishing in the wild. Detailed knowledge of demographic parameters (e.g. survival, reproduction) and temporal dynamics of such populations is crucial for sustainable management. Despite their relevance for management decisions, structure and size of exploited populations are often not known, and data limited. Recently, joint analysis of different types of demographic data, such as population counts, reproductive data and capture–mark–recapture data, within integrated population models (IPMs) has gained much popularity as it may allow estimating population size and structure, as well as key demographic rates, while fully accounting for uncertainty. IPMs built so far for exploited populations have typically been built as age‐structured population models. However, the age of harvested individuals is usually difficult and/or costly to assess and therefore often not available. Here, we introduce an IPM structured by body size classes, which allows making efficient use of data commonly available in exploited populations for which accurate information on age is often missing. The model jointly analyzes size‐at‐harvest data, capture–mark–recapture–recovery data and reproduction data from necropsies, and we illustrate its applicability in a case study involving heavily hunted wild boar. This species has increased in abundance over the last decades despite intense harvest, and the IPM analysis provides insights into the roles of natural mortality, body growth, maturation schedules and reproductive output in compensating for the loss of individuals to hunting. Early maturation and high reproductive output contributed to wild boar population persistence despite a strong hunting pressure. We thus demonstrate the potential of size‐class‐structured IPMs as tools to investigate the dynamics of exploited populations with limited information on age, and highlight both the applicability of this framework to other species and its potential for follow‐up analyses highly relevant to management.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient use of harvest data: a size‐class‐structured integrated population model for exploited populations

et al. 2021

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“…Because wild boars are rather altricial (i.e., are born in a nest and are highly restricted in their movements in their first days of age) and not as precocial as similar‐sized ungulates (Gaillard et al., 1997), and in accordance with recent growth modeling in pigs (Ceron et al., 2020), we thus expected wild boar to exhibit a Gompertz type growth trajectory. Moreover, as wild boars are strongly sexually dimorphic in size (Toïgo et al., 2008) with similar growth early in life for both sexes (Gaillard et al., 1992; Veylit et al., 2020b), we expected sex‐specific growth trajectories to follow our third scenario (i.e., males and females have the same growth rate but different growth period durations; Figure 1c). Therefore, we expected males and females to grow at the same rate but for males to grow for a longer period to reach a larger asymptotic body mass than females.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The study was conducted in two French wild boar populations subject to contrasting environments. The population in the 11,000 ha forest of Châteauvillain in northeastern France (48.02°N, 4.56°E) is heavily harvested (on average 727.18 ± 282.07 individuals shot per year, see Veylit et al., 2020b), with hunting being oriented toward young individuals (juveniles, see Gamelon et al., 2011). The forest is characterized by a climate intermediate between continental and oceanic and dominated by beech ( Fagus sylvatica ) and oak ( Quercus spp.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The site is therefore considered of poor quality (Douhard et al., 2013; Gaillard et al., 2003). The population in Chizé is subject to a light hunting pressure (on average 101.50 ± 80.94 individuals shot per year, see Veylit et al., 2020b).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By doing so, we tested whether individuals of a given sex and site exhibit the same type of growth trajectory (expected to be the Gompertz type) or whether individual heterogeneity in growth trajectory exists. As wild boars exhibit high variation in body growth rates during early life (Veylit et al., 2020b), we expected a high variation in body growth trajectories across individuals to occur in both study areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Many lifetime growth trajectories for a single mammal

Veylit

Sæther

Gaillard

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Despite their importance in shaping life history tactics and population dynamics, individual growth trajectories have only been rarely explored in the wild because their analysis requires multiple measurements of individuals throughout their lifetime and some knowledge of age, a key timer of body growth. The availability of long‐term longitudinal studies of two wild boar populations subjected to contrasting environments (rich vs. poor) provided an opportunity to analyze individual growth trajectories. We quantified wild boar growth trajectories at both the population and the individual levels using standard growth models (i.e., Gompertz, logistic, and monomolecular models) that encompass the expected range of growth shapes in determinate growers. Wild boar is a rather altricial species, with a polygynous mating system and is strongly sexually dimorphic in size. According to current theories of life history evolution, we thus expect wild boar to display a sex‐specific Gompertz type growth trajectory and lower sexual size dimorphism in the poorer environment. While wild boar displayed the expected Gompertz type trajectory in the rich site at the population level, we found some evidence for potential differences in growth shapes between populations and individuals. Asymptotic body mass, growth rate and timing of maximum growth rate differed as well, which indicates a high flexibility of growth in wild boar. We also found a cohort effect on asymptotic body mass, which suggests that environmental conditions early in life shape body mass at adulthood in this species. Our findings demonstrate that body growth trajectories in wild boar are highly diverse in relation to differences of environmental context, sex and year of birth. Whether the intermediate ranking of wild boar along the precocial–altricial continuum of development at birth may explain the ability of this species to exhibit this high diversity of growth patterns remains to be investigated.

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