Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The wild boar population grows rapidly in number in Sweden, and it has been predicted that the annual number of shot wild boar will soon exceed the cull of moose. According to estimates, the Swedish population encompassed some 150 000 individuals in 2010. The mean annual harvest has increased by 30% since 1990, indicating that the wild boar is a species we must learn to manage sustainably. A successful management of the boars aims for a population in balance with agriculture and traffic, and also provides good hunting opportunities. For this to be possible, understandings of several aspects of the ecology of wild boar is needed.

The sows in this study had an average homerange of 707 hectares during summer, and 659 hectares in winter. No statistically significant difference in the size of their summer and winter homeranges existed. However, wild boars with a large homerange in summer also used a relatively large area in the winter. Just one boar with enough positions was included in the study, and he showed a homerange of 10,194 hectares annually. These areas coincided fairly well with the results shown in previous studies in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, where homeranges of about 800 to 1,700 hectares were reported for sows and up to 10,000 hectares for boars.

There is quite a good knowledge of wild boar homeranges at the moment that can be useful for the planning of the species' management. The understandings may however be developed in terms of the variation between different landscape types, and to what extent homerange sizes are affected by supplemental feeding, its design and type.