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Annual and seasonal space use of different age classes of female wild boar Sus scrofa L.

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Abstract

In a radiotelemetric study, we analysed space use of 24 female specimens (14 family groups and 14 nonreproductive yearling females) out of 23 wild boar groups for periods between 3 and 39 months. Generally, wild boar used relatively small areas, showed high site fidelity but also a strong individual variation of home ranges, indicating a high flexibility in space use. Although age-specific differences were not statistically significant, female yearlings tended to have larger mean annual home ranges (1,185 ha MCP) than animals ranging in family groups (771 ha). Yearlings also showed a stronger shifting from spring to summer home ranges (2,345 m) and a tendency towards larger home range sizes in summer (791 ha MCP), compared to family groups (shift 1,766 m, MCP 461 ha). Yearlings displayed a dislocation of about 1 km of the annual centre in the first year after dividing from the mother. In contrast, in adults older than 2 years, the dislocation of the annual center was only 240 m.

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Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Dr. Michael Wiseman for assistance with statistical problems and Sonja C. Ludwig, Tobias Dittmann and Dr. Ulf Hohmann and one anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on an early draft of this manuscript. Special thanks go to Antje and Bernd Achenbach, Tanja Lampe, Josepha Ihde, Juliane Saebel and Kirstin Lauterbach for their help during field work, and the Forestry Office of Schildfeld for very good cooperation.

The study was supported by the Foundation “Wald und Wild in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern“, and the Ministry of Agriculture Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

All experiments comply with the current laws of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Forest Botany and Forest Zoology, Dresden University of Technology, Pienner Str. 7, D-01737, Tharandt, Germany

    Oliver Keuling, Norman Stier & Mechthild Roth

  2. Zedeliusstr. 31, D-26384, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Oliver Keuling

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  1. Oliver Keuling
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  2. Norman Stier
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  3. Mechthild Roth
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Correspondence to Oliver Keuling.

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Communicated by W. Lutz

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Keuling, O., Stier, N. & Roth, M. Annual and seasonal space use of different age classes of female wild boar Sus scrofa L.. Eur J Wildl Res 54, 403–412 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-007-0157-4

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