Ecology, Conservation and Management of Wild Pigs and Peccaries

Part II: Species Accounts

218

high passage rate through the digestive tract (Schley & Roper

2003). The diet of wild boar often contains other uncommon

food items including biological materials such as algae, as well

as garbage or inorganic material like plastic, rubber and stones

(Ballari & Barrios-García 2014). In some cases, these materi-

als are incidentally ingested during rooting or surface foraging.

Beyer et al. (1994) estimated that 2.3 per cent of wild boar diet

consisted of soil.

The data from published literature allowed grouping of

the results of the analyses of wild boar diet according to four

habitat types, i.e. forest–farmland, large mixed lowland forests,

wetlands, and mountains (Figure 21.8). In terms of quality, five

categories of fodder were distinguished. These included agri-

cultural crops, soft and hard mast, as well as animal food, all of

which contain high levels of metabolic energy (15.2–15.8 kJ/g

dry weight). It also included roots, ground flora, and browse,

whose nutritional value amounts to 14.3 kJ/g dry weight and

7.1 kJ/g dry weight, respectively (van Wieren 2000; Hodgkinson

et al. 2008; Śliwiński et al. 2010).

The multi-annual and seasonal variability of the diet of wild

boar was studied in the forest–farmland habitat of Luxembourg

(Cellina 2008; Figure 21.9). For three subsequent years, the

proportion of natural food (ground flora, browse, roots, and

animals) was highest in the spring. In the summer season, agri-

cultural crops predominate (50–65 per cent). Hunter-provided

supplemental food was important to wild boar in the autumn

and winter. During a heavy mast year (2004), the importance of

the category of supplemental food dropped while the proportion

of oak and beech seeds increased to 58.6 per cent (Figure 21.9).

Annual diet. According to Genov (1981a), Dardaillon

(1987), Herrero et al. (2006) and Gimenez-Anaya et al. (2008),

agricultural crops predominated in the year-round diet of the

wild boar living in Polish and Spanish forest–farmland habitat

(79 per cent) and in the wetlands situated on the western coast of

Figure 21.9 The proportions of food

components (per cent of volume) in

the diet of 1200 wild boar bagged

from the spring of 2003 to the summer

of 2005 in forest–farmland habitat in

Luxembourg (from Cellina 2008).

Figure 21.8 The proportions of

particular food categories in the

year-round diet of wild boar in different

types of habitat (1) forest–farmland

(Genov 1981b; Herrero et al. 2006);

(2) large mixed lowland forests (Abáigar

1993; Groot Bruinderink et al. 1994;

Fournier-Chambrillon et al. 1995);

(3) wetlands (Dardaillon 1987; Gimemez-

Anaya et al. 2008) and (4) mountain

areas (Baubet et al. 2004; Kodera et al.

2013).

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