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. 2021 Sep 22;11(1):18821.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97798-z.

Food resources affect territoriality of invasive wild pig sounders with implications for control

John C Kilgo  1 , James E Garabedian  2 , Mark Vukovich  2   3 , Peter E Schlichting  4   5 , Michael E Byrne  4   6 , James C Beasley  4
Affiliations

Food resources affect territoriality of invasive wild pig sounders with implications for control

John C Kilgo et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Interest in control methods for invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) has increased due to their range expansion, population growth, and an improved understanding of their destructive ecological and economic effects. Recent technological advances in traps for control of pig populations facilitate capture of entire social groups (sounders), but the efficacy of "whole-sounder" trapping strategies is heavily dependent on the degree of territoriality among sounders, a topic little research has explored. We assessed territoriality in wild pig sounders on the Savannah River Site, South Carolina, USA, and examined whether availability of food resources provided by a municipal-waste landfill affected among-sounder territoriality. We estimated utilization distribution overlap and dynamic interactions among 18 neighboring sounders around a landfill. We found that although neighboring sounders overlapped in space, intensity of use in shared areas was uniformly low, indicating territorial behavior. Neighbors tended to share slightly more space when closer to the landfill waste cells, indicating availability of a super-abundant resource somewhat weakens the degree of territoriality among sounders. Nevertheless, we conclude that sounders behaved in a generally territorial manner, and we discuss implications for whole-sounder trapping programs, particularly near concentrated resources such as landfills and crop fields.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of the Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority (TRSWA) regional landfill and waste cells on the Savannah River Site, South Carolina, USA. Map created using ArcGIS Pro version 2.8.1 (https://www.esri.com).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Season-long (3.5 months; 27 Mar–12 Jul) home ranges (95% utilization distribution contours) of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) tracked on Savannah River Site, South Carolina, USA, in 2014 (a; npigs = 7) and 2016 (b; npigs = 11). Map created using ArcGIS Pro version 2.8.1 (https://www.esri.com).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Predicted effects of percentage of utilization distribution (UD) in the landfill (% UD in landfill) and distance from UD boundaries to the waste cells within the landfill (Distance to waste cell [km]) on UD size (ha; a and d), proportional area of overlap (2D overlap; b and e), and volume of intersection (VI; c and f) of season-long (n = 2) UDs for wild pigs (Sus scrofa; n = 14) on Savannah River Site, South Carolina, USA, in 2014 and 2016. Figure created in the R statistical environment version 4.0.5 (https://www.cran.r-project.org).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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