Open AccessHarmonization of the use of hunting statistics for wild boar density estimation in different study areas
Author(s) -
Vicente Joaquín,
Palencia Pablo,
Plhal Radim,
BlancoAguiar José Antonio,
Laguna Eduardo,
Soriguer Ramón,
López Javier Fernández,
Podgórski Tomasz,
Petrović Karolina,
Apollonio Marco,
Scandura Massimo,
Ferroglio Ezio,
Zanet Stefania,
Brivio Francesca,
Keuling Oliver,
Smith Graham C,
Guibert Miguel,
Villanúa Diego,
Rosell Carme,
Colomer Joana,
Armenteros Jose Ángel,
Quirós Pablo González,
Palacios Orencio Hernández,
Ferreres Javier,
Torres José Antonio,
Pareja Pablo,
MartínezCarrasco Carlos,
Fafián José Antonio,
Escribano Fernando,
Esteve Carles,
Acevedo Pelayo
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
efsa supporting publications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2397-8325
DOI - 10.2903/sp.efsa.2019.en-1706
Subject(s) - wild boar , harmonization , usable , statistics , calibration , habitat , density estimation , geography , czech , estimation , ecology , environmental science , mathematics , computer science , biology , archaeology , management , economics , linguistics , physics , philosophy , estimator , world wide web , acoustics
Hunting statistics can be suitable to determine wild boar density estimates if a calibration with an accepted rigorous method is performed. Here, densities calculated from drive counts during collective drive hunting activities are compared against density values calculated by camera trapping using the random encounter method. For this purpose, we selected 10 study sites in Spain, from North to South representing a diversity of habitats, management and hunting traditions without artificial feeding, plus one study site in Czech Republic where artificial feeding was practiced. Density values estimated from both drive counts and camera trapping were strongly positively correlated ( R 2 =0.84 and 0.87 for linear and non‐linear models, respectively) and showed a good agreement. Drive counts data might be therefore used as a density estimate to calibrate models for estimating density in large areas and potentially, to compare densities among areas. For these purposes, there is still the need to harmonise hunting data collection across Europe to make them usable at a large scale. Our results need to be confirmed across a wider number of European populations to provide valid geographical wild boar density predictions across Europe.