Escape movements of family groups of wild boar Sus scrofa influenced by drive hunts in Lower Saxony, Germany

The population density of wild boars in Lower Saxony, Germany, has increased drastically during the last decade. High wild boar density causes severe damage to crops and increases the risk of occurrence and distribution of the Classical Swine Fever disease (CSF). Consequently, a reduction of the population density by hunting wild boar in hog cholera zones is necessary. An effective hunting method is the drive hunt performed with beaters, hunters and dogs (terriers), which force wild boars to leave their resting sites. Drive hunt, however, increases the risk of spreading wild boars over a wider area, and this leads to a greater risk of infecting other wild boars with the CSF-virus. Since 1998, ecological and behavioural data of a wild boar population in Lower Saxony, Germany, have been collected. Based on telemetric observations, data of home range size, habitat use and daily and nightly movements were collected. We investigated the effects of several drive hunts on the movements of seven radio-marked wild boar groups, and analysed 10 hunting situations and wild boar escape behaviour. In spite of heavy hunting pressure, in six of the 10 hunting situations, the escaping wild boar groups remained within their home range; in four hunting situations, the wild boar groups left their core area after the drive hunt and relocated up to 6 km away. But after four to six weeks at the latest, the groups had returned to the centres of their home ranges.