Abstract
The wild boar is an invasive ecosystem engineer in Argentina that has lacked sufficient basic information to determine applied actions. The current distribution, impacts and management of this species were analyzed using the expert opinion surveys of protected area managers. The boar is widely distributed and occupies most of Argentina’s terrestrial ecoregions. Moreover, its populations are common, and its abundance is growing in most of the protected areas. Boars were recorded mostly in wetlands, forest and shrublands. Managers also reported a wide range of negative impacts, which included soil disturbance, vegetation damage and animal predation. Several control method types are used and in most protected areas, more than one are applied, but hunting was the most used technique. However, the effectiveness of control methods was low, suggesting the need of an urgent plan to define coordinated management actions to minimize the negative impacts of this species and also to prevent its expansion into new areas.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arrington D, Toth L, Koebel J Jr (1999) Effects of rooting by feral hogs, Sus scrofa L. on the structure of a flood plain vegetation assemblage. Wetlands 19:535–544
Ballari SA, Barrios-Garcia MN (2014) A review of wild boar Sus scrofa diet and factors affecting food selection in native and introduced ranges. Mamm Rev 44:124–134
Barrios-García MN, Ballari SA (2012) Impact of wild boar (Sus scrofa) in its introduced and native range: a review. Biol Invasions 14:2283–2300
Barrios-García MN, Simberloff D (2013) Linking the pattern to the mechanism: how an exotic mammal promotes plant invasions. Austral Ecol 38:884–890
Bengsen AJ, Gentle MN, Mitchell JL, Pearson HE, Saunders GR (2014) Impacts and management of wild pigs Sus scrofa in Australia. Mamm Rev 44:135–147
Bieber C, Ruf T (2005) Populations dynamics in wild boar Sus scrofa: ecology, elasticity of growth rate and the implications for the management of pulsed resource consumers. J Appl Ecol 42(6):1203–1213
Campbell TA, Long DB (2009) Feral swine damage and damage management in forested ecosystems. For Ecol Manage 257:2319–2326
Coblentz BE, Baber DW (1987) Biology and control of feral pigs on Isla Santiago, Galapagos, Ecuador. J Appl Ecol 24:403–418
Crooks JA (2002) Characterizing ecosystem-level consequences of biological invasions: the role of ecosystem engineers. Oikos 97:153–166
Cuevas MF, Novillo A, Campos C, Dacar MA, Ojeda RA (2010) Food habits and impact of rooting behavior of the invasive wild boar, Sus scrofa, in a protected area of the Monte Desert, Argentina. J Arid Environ 74:1582–1585
Cuevas MF, Mastrantonio L, Ojeda RA, Jaksic FM (2012) Effects of wild boar disturbance on vegetation and soil properties in the Monte Desert, Argentina. Mamm Biol 77:299–306
Cuevas MF, Ojeda RA, Dacar MA, Jaksic FM (2013a) Seasonal variation in feeding habits and diet selection by wild boars in a semi-arid environment of Argentina. Acta Theriol 58:63–72
Cuevas MF, Ojeda RA, Jaksic FM (2013b) Multi-scale patterns of habitat use by wild boar in the Monte Desert of Argentina. Basic Appl Ecol 14:320–328
Dexter N (2003) Stochastic models of foot and mouth disease in feral pigs in the Australian semi-arid rangelands. J Appl Ecol 40:293–306
Donlan CJ, Wingfield DK, Crowder LB, Wilcox C (2010) Using expert opinion surveys to rank threats to endangered species: a case study with sea turtles. Conserv Biol 24:1586–1595
Estevez R, Anderson CB, Pizarro JC, Burgman M (2014) Clarifying values, risk perception and attitudes to resolve or avoid social conflicts in invasive species management. Conserv Biol. doi:10.1111/cobi.12359
Fonseca C (2008) Winter habitat selection by wild boar Sus scrofa in southeastern Poland. Eur J Wildl Res 54:361–366
Geisser H, Reyer HU (2005) The influence of food and temperature on population density of wild boar Sus scrofa in the Thurgau (Switzerland). J Zool 267:89–96
Jaksic FM, Iriarte JA, Jiménez JE, Martínez DR (2002) Invaders without frontiers: cross-border invasions of exotic mammals. Biol Invasions 4:157–173
Jones CG, Lawton JH, Shachak M (1994) Organisms as ecosystem engineers. Oikos 69:373–386
Leroux SJ, Kerr JT (2012) Land development in and around protected areas at the wilderness frontier. Conserv Biol 27:166–176
Long JL (2003) Introduced mammals of the world: their history distribution and influence. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, 612 pp
Massei G, Roy S, Bunting R (2011) Too many hogs? A review of methods to mitigate impact by wild boar and feral hogs. Hum Wildl Interact 5(1):79–99
Meriggi A, Sacchi O (2001) Habitat requirements of wild boar in the Northern Apennines (N Italy): a multi-level approach. Ital J Zool 68:47–55
Merino ML, Carpinetti BN (2003) Feral pig Sus scrofa population estimates in Bahía Samborombón conservation area, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. Mastozool Neotrop 10:269–275
Merino ML, Carpinetti BN, Abba AM (2009) Invasive mammals in the national parks system of Argentina. Nat Areas J 29:42–49
Navas JR (1987) Los vertebrados exóticos introducidos en la Argentina. Rev Mus Argent Cienc Nat Bernardino Rivadavia Zool 14(2):7–38
Nores C, Llaneza L, Álvarez A (2008) Wild boar Sus scrofa mortality by hunting and wolf Canis lupus predation: an example in northern Spain. Wildl Biol 14:44–51
Novillo A, Ojeda RA (2008) The exotic mammals of Argentina. Biol Invasions 10:1333–1344
Paviolo A, De Angelo CD, Di Blanco YE, Di Bitetti MS (2008) Jaguar Panthera onca population decline in the upper Paraná Atlantic forest of Argentina and Brazil. Oryx 42:554–561
Pérez Carusi LC, Beade MS, Miñarro F, Vila AR, Giménez-Dixon M, Bilenca DN (2009) Relaciones espaciales y numéricas entre venados de las pampas (Ozotoceros bezoarticus celer) y chanchos cimarrones (Sus scrofa) en el Refugio de Vida Silvestre Bahía Samborombón, Argentina. Ecol Austral 19:63–71
Pescador M, Sanguinetti J, Pastore H, Peris S (2009) Expansion of the introduced wild boar (Sus scrofa) in the Andean Region, Argentinean Patagonia. Galemys 21(nº especial):121–132
Pimentel DS (2002) Biological invasions: economic and environmental costs of alien plant, animals and microbial species. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Pimentel D, Mcnair S, Janecka J, Wightman J, Simmonds C, O’connell C, Wong E, Russel L, Zern J, Aquino T, Tsomondo T (2001) Economic and environmental threats of alien plant, animal, and microbe invasions. Agric Ecosyst Environ 84:1–20
Pimentel D, Lach L, Zuniga R, Morrison D (2005) Update on the environmental and economic costs associated with alien-invasive species in the United States. Ecol Econ 52(3):273–288
Podgórski T, Bas G, Jedrzejewska B, Sonnichsen L, Sniezko A, Jedrzejewski W, Okarma H (2013) Spatiotemporal behavioral plasticity of wild boar (Sus scrofa) under contrasting conditions of human pressure: primeval forest and metropolitan area. J Mamm 94(1):109–119
Rosell C, Fernández-Llario P, Herrero J (2001) El jabalí (Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758). Galemys 13:1–25
Saito M, Momose H, Mihira T, Uematsu S (2012) Predicting the risk of wild boar damage to rice paddies using presence-only data in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Int J Pest Manag 58:65–71
Sanguinetti J, Kitzberger T (2010) Factors controlling seed predation by rodents and non-native Sus scrofa in Araucaria araucana forests: potential effects on seedling establishment. Biol Invasions 12:689–706
Schiaffini MI, Vila AR (2012) Habitat use of the wild boar, Sus scrofa Linnaeus 1758, in Los Alerces National Park, Argentina. Stud Neotrop Fauna Environ 47:11–17
Schley L, Dufrêne M, Krier A, Frantz AC (2008) Patterns of crop damage by wild boar (Sus scrofa) in Luxembourg over a 10-year period. Eur J Wildl Res 54:589–599
Schley L, Roper TJ (2003) Diet of wild boar, Sus scrofa, in Western Europe, with particular reference to consumption of agricultural crops. Mammal Rev 33:43–56
SIFAP (2012) Sistema Federal de Áreas Protegidas. http://www2.medioambiente.gov.ar/sifap/default.asp. Accessed 2 Jan 2012
Toïgo C, Servanty S, Gaillard JM, Brandt S, Baubet E (2008) Disentangling natural from hunting mortality in an intensively hunted wild boar population. J Wildl Manage 72:1532–1539
Valenzuela AEJ, Anderson CB, Fasola L, Cabello JL (2014) Linking invasive exotic vertebrates and their ecosystem impacts in Tierra del Fuego to test theory and determine action. Acta Oecol 54:110–118
Veitch CR, Clout MN (2002) Turning the tide: the eradication of invasive species. In: Proceedings of the international conference on eradication of island invasives. IUCN, Switzerland, p 414
Waithman JD, Sweitzer RA, van Vuren D, Drew JD, Brinkhaus AJ, Gardner IA (1999) Range expansion, population sizes, and management of wild pigs in California. J Wildl Manag 63:298–308
Wirthner S, Frey B, Busse MD, Schütz M, Risch AC (2011) Effects of wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) rooting on the bacterial community structure in mixed-hardwood forest soils in Switzerland. Eur J Soil Biol 47:296–302
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Christopher Anderson and M. Noelia Barrios-García for review and comment the early versions of the manuscript and three anonymous reviewers for comments that improved the quality of the manuscript. Daniel Dueñas helping us with the map (MAGRAF, CCT Mendoza). APN research through Permit N°orden DCM420 and all the protected areas who have responded to our survey.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ballari, S.A., Cuevas, M.F., Cirignoli, S. et al. Invasive wild boar in Argentina: using protected areas as a research platform to determine distribution, impacts and management. Biol Invasions 17, 1595–1602 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-014-0818-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-014-0818-7