(Winter habitat use of three subadult male wild boar in the Palatinate Forest)

In dieser Diplomarbeit von Kathrin Berger wurde untersucht, welche Lebensraumtypen Wildschweine im Winter im Pfälzerwald nutzten und wie groß der Einfluss einzelner Parameter auf die Habitatwahl war. Zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen wurden im Wildforschungsgebiet Pfälzerwald Wildschweine in Fallen gefangen, besendert und insgesamt vom 21.01. - 09.04.2006 telemetrisch überwacht. 
Drei männliche, subadulte Wildschweine (ein Frischling und zwei Überläufer) konnten dabei genauer vom Boden aus über Triangulationen (Ortungspeilungen) beobachtet werden. Aus den ermittelten Aufenthaltsorten ergaben sich Streifgebietsgroessen von 934 ha, 243 ha und 494 ha.

English Summary

The aim of this diploma thesis was to study which habitat types are preferred by wild boar during winter in the Palatinate Forest, and to determine the impact of different parameters on habitat choice. To address these questions, wild boar were caught in cage traps in the study area, equipped with VHF- ear tag transmitters and observed via telemetry. Location data were used to calculate minimum convex polygon home ranges. The home range areas of the 3 wild boar were 934 ha, 243 ha and 494 ha, respectively.
For analysis of habitat use, the telemetry locations were compared with data from detailed forestry maps and with a digital elevation model. Thus, for each location parameters like tree species, age class of the different tree species, elevation, inclination and exposition were available for comparison. The analysis of these data revealed that both exposition and inclination influenced day- and night- habitat use: southwest- slopes were avoided by the wild boar and steeper slopes were preferred. Reasons for these findings may be that the prevailing wind comes from southwest and that there is more block overlay at steeper slopes. Young spruce stands were preferred as daily resting places which provide cover. As nightly foraging habitat, older oak and beech stands were used more frequently. 
The study described here represents a pilot study fort this area. For further work in the future, we recommend a self-made mapping of the relevant areas in order to obtain a finer grained data base for studying habitat use. Furthermore, the number of monitored individuals should be considerably greater and include individuals of different age classes and of both sexes. This could allow more general conclusions concerning the behaviour of wild boar in our study area.

Weitere Links

BERGER, K. (2006): Winterhabitatnutzung dreier subadulter, männlicher Wildschweine (Sus scrofa L.) im Pfälzerwald.- Diplomarbeit an der Fakultät für Forst- und Umweltwissenschaften der Albert-Ludwigs- Universität Freiburg  (PDF; 744 KB)

Kontakt

Dr. Ulf Hohmann, ulf.hohmann(at)wald-rlp.de, Tel.: 49-6306-911-148