Wild boars’ social structure in the Mediterranean habitat

Abstract

Wild boar Sus scrofa has become a pest throughout Europe, but its social system in this setting is unknown, making it difficult to implement an effective management strategy. We collected data on social grouping patterns by video-trapping the population living in an Italian Mediterranean National Park. We collected over 120 days of observations and the activities of 1431 wild boars. The seasonal variations in wild boar social organisation seem to be directly related to the biological cycle, with some exceptions, such as the unexpected presence of solitary or groups of piglets. The population was more active during the summer, and the mean group size (4.14 ± 0.21) was quite similar to other European boar group sizes. We confirmed that video traps are an appropriate method to monitor versatile wildlife, especially for assessing the population structure, sex and age ratios of wild boars.

Yawn contagion in domestic pigs (Sus scrofa)

“…As a matter of fact, at the adaptive level the dominant status of males may be not as much relevant for yawn contagion in the light of the species biology. Under natural conditions, in both feral pigs and wild boars females with offspring form matrilineal units and join together in stable groups of variable size whereas solitary adult males live isolated and only temporarily join female groups 40,63,64 . This social structure can explain why adult females and not males form a linear hierarchy, with older sows being dominant over younger sows [65][66][67][68] .…”

Behavioural patterns of free roaming wild boar in a spatiotemporal context

“…Most studies were conducted at artificial feeding places (Schneider, 1980;Saebel, 2007;Focardi et al, 2015) or in enclosures (e.g., Gundlach, 1968;Beuerle, 1975;Altmann, 1989) which does not necessarily enable to cover all behavioural elements that would normally occur over the course of a day in a wild population. There is a lack of recent field studies under natural conditions due to the fact that wild boar are widely seen as a pest because of their constant conflict terms with humans, such as crop damage, disease transmission (Keuling et al, 2013;Allwin et al, 2016;Probst et al, 2017) and zoonosis, road traffic accidents, and disturbances to sensitive plant communities (Maselli et al, 2014). Though, it is very important to understand the behaviour of wild boar to be able to implement effective management strategies for reduction plans (Maselli et al, 2014) as well as for animal welfare in enclosures (Kovács, Újváry & Szemethy, 2017).…”

“…There is a lack of recent field studies under natural conditions due to the fact that wild boar are widely seen as a pest because of their constant conflict terms with humans, such as crop damage, disease transmission (Keuling et al, 2013;Allwin et al, 2016;Probst et al, 2017) and zoonosis, road traffic accidents, and disturbances to sensitive plant communities (Maselli et al, 2014). Though, it is very important to understand the behaviour of wild boar to be able to implement effective management strategies for reduction plans (Maselli et al, 2014) as well as for animal welfare in enclosures (Kovács, Újváry & Szemethy, 2017).…”

Improved Strategies for Handling Entire Sounders of Wild Pigs

“…Sounder dynamics are poorly understood and are challenging to study without identification and monitoring of all individuals (Maselli et al 2014, Focardi et al 2015, Beasley et al 2018). Furthermore, disruption of sounder composition through removals or failure to maximize the number of individuals monitored has potential to result in misleading conclusions (Maselli et al 2014, Focardi et al 2015).…”

“…Sounder dynamics are poorly understood and are challenging to study without identification and monitoring of all individuals (Maselli et al 2014, Focardi et al 2015, Beasley et al 2018). Furthermore, disruption of sounder composition through removals or failure to maximize the number of individuals monitored has potential to result in misleading conclusions (Maselli et al 2014, Focardi et al 2015). Although recaptures occur (Sparklin et al 2009), researchers have documented the reluctance or avoidance of trap sites by individual animals following their presence when a trap is triggered and their cohorts are captured (Gaskamp 2012), emphasizing the importance of capturing entire sounders when possible.…”