STUDY OF WILD BOAR EVOLUTION IN THE BAGES REGION Benjamí Romero Soto

June 2017

Introduction The population of wild boar (Sus scrofa) has increased during the last decades in Catalonia, especially in the north-east quadrant of the country, which involves sanitary risks, damages in the crops or also traffic accidents. Bages is a region in the centre of Catalonia (fig.1) with a hydraulic and orographic structure formed by the rivers Llobregat and Cardener. Areas with a fragmented habitat, as it is a part of Bages, have been out of the official monitoring. The aim of this study is to know how the populations of wild boar in Bages have evolved, what it would the advantages of applying concrete population control measures for the region. It starts from the hypothesis that the north-east area of Bages presents a major density than the rest of the region.

Materials and methods

Results

Discussion •This project has to be understood as an approximation because it presents a lot of skew factors. •The evolution of the quadrant north-west of the region it cannot be interpreted because of the lack of data. •There is a current big problem with the damage in the vineyard farming (Vitis vinifera). Whit this study we can notice the existence of a conflict between the people and the wild boar. •In the case of Bages, the population control is through the reduction of the jungle environments nearby the mountain ranges and rivers where it is settled, for example using animals which clean the understory, closing estates which are near the high-density core in order to avoid the damage and take advantage of the sources, and maintaining the hunting, which is probably going to become professional in the future.

Conclusions

The evolution of the wild boar in the region of Bages presents a clear ascending

tendency with a major density and distribution in the south-east area, which wasn’t

expected. This leads us again not to hesitate about the exploratory capacities, habitat

conquests and sources exploitation of this animal.

References Minuartia. (2016). Programa de seguiment de les poblacions de senglar (Sus scrofa) a Catalunya. Temporada 2015-2016. Departament d’Agricultura, Ramaderia, Pesca i Alimentació.

Sáez-Royuela, C. y Tellería, J. L. (1988). Las batidas como método de censo en especies de caza mayor: aplicación del caso del Jabalí (Sus scrofa L.) en la provincia de Burgos (Norte de España). Doñana, Acta Vertebrata, 15 (2): 215-223.

Acknowledgements

To Dr. Santiago Lavín González (UAB), Dr. Josep Maria López Martín (DARP), Mr. Manel Fernández (Cos d’Agents Rurals) , Mr. Santi Ferrón (Federació Catalana de Caça), Ms. Eva Farré (D.

O. Pla de Bages) and Bages delegation of Catalan Institution of Natural History (ICHN). I would like to express my gratitude for their disposal and knowledge transfer, as well as the

passion entrust for the animals and the territory.

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Wild boar /Km2 Captures

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Captures i densitat

Figure 2: Evolution of the captures during the period of the study (blue). Esteem of the global density of the region (red). Source: own.

Figure 3: Evolution of the distribution of the captures per unit of surface in Bages. A, 2000-2005; B, 2005-2013; C, 2013-14. Source: own.

C B A

The origin of the information is the statistics from the Hunting and Continental Fishing Section of Activities in Barcelona from the Department of Agriculture, Farming and Fishing (DARP). The obtained information is: register of the private area of hunting (APC), name, surface, township, captures during the period 2000-2015 [n=12.769]. Each APC has been identified in the territory by the cartographic viewer of hunting areas of DARP [n=47, 85.330 ha (78%)] (fig.1). The data treatment has been: graphic representation of the evolution of the number of captures, elaboration of three maps for the evolution of the captures distribution in the APC study, estimation of the density in the period 2012-2015 with the method described by Sáez-Royuela and Tellería (1988).

Les dades de l’estudi s’han obtingut de les estadístiques de caça de la Secció d’Activitats Cinegètiques i Pesca Continental a Barcelona (DARP). L’origen d’aquestes dades són les captures anuals que les societats de caçadors de les diferents APC comuniquen al DARP. La informació obtinguda és la següent: matrícula de l’APC, nom, superfície cinegètica, municipi, captures durant el període 2000-2015. Les dades de l’estudi s’han obtingut de les estadístiques de caça de la Secció d’Activitats Cinegètiques i Pesca Continental a Barcelona (DARP). L’origen d’aquestes dades són les captures anuals que les societats de caçadors de les diferents APC comuniquen al DARP. La informació obtinguda és la següent: matrícula de l’APC, nom, superfície cinegètica, municipi, captures durant el període 2000-2015.

Figure 1: Localization of Bages (over) and view of the cartographic viewer of hunting (below).

•We can see an increase of the captures that coincides with the global statistics of hunting of Catalonia (fig.2). •The estimated density for the global of the region is about 2 wild boars/km2 in 2012 and 2013, 4 wild boars/km2 in 2014 and 5 wild boars/km2 in 2015 (fig.2), so they are moderate and low as it is described in the official monitoring. •In the distribution of the captures per unit of surface we can see the increase of the densities in the period of the study, as well as two big cores with a major density that follow a north-west south-east axis, one between Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac, the plateau of Moianès and the river Llobregat, and another one between Serra de Rubió, Serra de Castelltallat and the river Cardener (fig.3). The APC with more captures in the last part of the study (fig.3C) presents a coincidence with some areas of the region where there is vineyard farming.