Wild Boar Proves High Tolerance to Human-Caused Disruptions: Management Implications in African Swine Fever Outbreaks

Abstract

Currently, African swine fever (ASF), a highly fatal disease has become pervasive, with outbreaks recorded across European countries, leading to preventative measures to restrict wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) movement, and, therefore, keep ASF from spreading. This study aims to detail how specific human activities-defined as "car", "dog", "chainsaw", and "tourism"-affect wild boar behavior, considering the disturbance proximity, and evaluate possible implications for wild boar management in ASF-affected areas. Wild boar behavior was studied using advanced biologging technology. This study tracks and analyzes wild boar movements and behavioral responses to human disturbances. This study utilizes the dead reckoning method to precisely reconstruct the animal movements and evaluate behavioral changes based on proximity to disturbances. The sound of specific human activities was reproduced for telemetered animals from forest roads from different distances. Statistical analyses show that wild boars exhibit increased vigilance and altered movement patterns in response to closer human activity, but only in a small number of cases and with no significantly longer time scale. The relative representation of behaviors after disruption confirmed a high instance of resting behavior (83%). Running was the least observed reaction in only 0.9% of all cases. The remaining reactions were identified as foraging (5.1%), walking (5.0%), standing (2.2%), and other (3.8%). The findings suggest that while human presence and activities do influence wild boar behavior, adherence to movement restrictions and careful management of human activity in ASF-infected areas is not a necessary measure if human movement is limited to forest roads.

Keywords: anthropogenic disturbances; behavior; biologging; movement; wild boar.

Figure 1

Map of dead reckoning for one day, including color separation of behavior.

Figure 2

Mean observed distance between wild boar and humans for each type of wild boar behavior. Indices above each show statistical homogeneity between variants (different indices mean significant difference and vice versa).

Figure 3

Two pie charts comparing animal behavior under conditions of disturbance and without disturbance.

Figure 4

Density plot (relationship of the relative number of occurrences on the distance between wild boar and humans) of all records across all studied animals, disturbance periods, and disturbance types.

Figure 5

Density plot (relationship of the relative number of occurrences on the distance between wild boar and humans) of all records across all studied animals, disturbance periods, and different types of disturbances.

Figure 6

Relative number of wild boars detected in the immediate two hours after disturbance at different distances.