Space use of wild boar (Sus Scrofa) in Budapest: are they resident or transient city dwellers?

In our study, we examined the movement of two wild boars marked with GPS/GSM transmitters in city of Budapest. We hypothesised that: the wild boars do not leave the urban area (H1); the wild boars prefer places that are less disturbed by people, and which are rich in potential hiding places (H2); and their home ranges would be smaller than that of wild boars living in non-urban environment (H3). Based on our results, we accepted our first hypothesis, as the wild boars had not left the area of Budapest. However, we partly rejected our second hypothesis: the wild boars preferred urban areas that were forested and richly covered with vegetation; however, human presence therefore disturbance was also high in those areas. The home range sizes of both marked wild boar sows were remarkably smaller than those of the wild boars living in natural environment (H3). City habitat modification, e.g. clearing undergrowth vegetation, could result that wild boars cannot find any hiding places. The significant part of food sources will disappear with the elimination of these places. By eliminating the two main factors together could prevent wild boars finding their living conditions within the city.

Quality and use of habitat patches by wild boar (Sus scrofa) along an urban gradient.

Expansion and urbanization process of wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations lead to serious human-wildlife conflicts in many cities, e.g. in Budapest, Hungary. In this study we evaluated the penetration potential of the species into the inner urban areas by identifying the occurrence of wild boar and the quality of the habitat patches for them along an urban gradient from the periphery towards the centre. Wild boar rooting intensity, shrub cover and the availability of woody species giving favourable food to wild boar were measured in four different habitat patches. The availability of hiding shrub patches was much higher in the outer areas than in the inner ones. Similarly, the proportion of shrub and tree species providing favourable food for wild boar decreased towards the centre. Accordingly, we found rooting only in two areas nearer to the city boundary. Based on our results at the peripheral areas permanent presence of wild boar in near-natural habitats should be expected, but not in the inner green zones. We recommend to monitor the urban wild boar presence and evaluate the quality of urban green patches to mitigate problems related to the wild boars.