Winter habitat selection by wild boar Sus scrofa in southeastern Poland

Abstract

Research was conducted on habitat selection by the wild-boar population in the Carpathian foothills, southeastern Poland. In two forest districts (Bircza and Krasiczyn) with a total area of forests of 47,000 ha, 21 line transects were designated (total length, 284 km). In February 2001, tracks that wild boar left during the day were counted on five subsequent days. Using a car mileage meter and forest maps, the locations of tracks in seven forest types, forest meadows and agricultural fields situated inside the forests were determined. The Bailey’s test was applied to calculate the boars’ preference for each forest type and non-forest areas. Spatial distribution of 284 wild-boar tracks shows that the animals do indeed prefer European beech–hornbeam Fagus silvatica–Carpinus betulus forest and avoid silver fir Abies alba forest. The hypothesis raised is that in the European beech–hornbeam forests, there are foraging areas and bedding sites crucial for the animals.