Abstract
Where allochthonous large mammals, such as the wild boars, occur in high density, human-wildlife conflicts may arise. Thus, assessing their spatio-temporal patterns is paramount to their management. We studied the wild boars on Elba island, Italy, where they have been introduced and are perceived as pests to address their occurrence and impact of foraging on natural habitat. We surveyed the western island with three camera trapping surveys within one year. We found that the species' estimated occupancy probability was higher in summer-autumn (0.75 ± 0.14) and winter-early spring (0.70 ± 0.10) than in spring–summer (0.53 ± 0.15), whereas detection probability did not vary. Occupancy was significantly associated with lower elevation and woodland cover. Lower site use of wild boars during spring–summer might reflect lower food availability in this season and/or boars’ movements towards landfarms outside the sampled area. Detectability increased with proximity to roads during spring–summer and decreased with humans’ relative abundance in other periods. Boars were mainly nocturnal, with decreasing overlap with human activity when human presence was higher in the park. Soil degradation caused by wild boars was higher in pine plantations, which is the cover with a lower conservation interest. The spatio-temporal activity of wild boars on the island appears driven by seasonal preferences for food-rich cover and avoidance of human disturbance. The lowered site use in months with lower resources could partially reflect increased proximity to settled and farmed areas, which may trigger crop-raiding and the negative perception by residents.
Highlights
The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is an ungulate that often triggers a wide range of human-wildlife conflicts, whose demographic history in Europe is complex and affected by various reintroductions and translocations
We studied the spatio-temporal activity of wild boars on Elba island and found that the species is widespread across the study area, with an estimated occupancy that seasonally reaches average values of 0.75
The evident soil degradation resulting from a greater intensity in the rooting activity found within pine plantations confirms that within the wooded habitat pine plantations are one of the most frequently used by wild boars (Abaigar et al 1994, Rodrigues et al 2016)
Summary
The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is an ungulate that often triggers a wide range of human-wildlife conflicts, whose demographic history in Europe is complex and affected by various reintroductions and translocations. In the last 30 years, the distribution range of the wild boar has largely expanded due to anthropogenic and environmental factors (Bieber and Ruf, 2005; Geisser and Reyer, 2005; Hearn et al 2014; Massei et al 2014), with the uncontrolled restocking for hunting purposes being one of the major causes This practice had led to the introduction of such highly plastic and prolific species on islands, including the Tuscan Archipelago before it became a national park in 1996 (Meriggi et al 2015). Island ecosystems are vulnerable to the effects of introduced populations for the geographic isolation and the higher specialisation of native species (Russell et al 2017) In this context, wild boars can reach high densities since natural predators and competitors are usually absent. As an important ecological engineer (Jones et al 1994), boars can trigger knock-off effects on biocenosis that span from the extensive rooting of slopes and soils, ground aeration, uprooting and trampling of seedlings, the creation of germination niches for plants, and the direct consumption of flora and fauna with potential high conservation interest (Massei and Genov 2004; Sendom and Hughes 2012)
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