Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, PO Drawer E, Aiken, SC, 29802, USA.
United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, 4101 LaPorte Avenue, Fort Collins, CO, 80521-2154, USA.
Sci Rep. 2021 Mar 25;11(1):6924. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-86363-3.
Elucidating correlations between wild pig (Sus scrofa) behavior and landscape attributes can aid in the advancement of management strategies for controlling populations. Using GPS data from 49 wild pigs in the southeastern U.S., we used hidden Markov models to define movement path characteristics and assign behaviors (e.g., resting, foraging, travelling). We then explored the connection between these behaviors and resource selection for both sexes between two distinct seasons based on forage availability (i.e., low forage, high forage). Females demonstrated a crepuscular activity pattern in the high-forage season and a variable pattern in the low-forage season, while males exhibited nocturnal activity patterns across both seasons. Wild pigs selected for bottomland hardwoods and dense canopy cover in all behavioral states in both seasons. Males selected for diversity in vegetation types while foraging in the low-forage season compared to the high-forage season and demonstrated an increased use of linear anthropogenic features across seasons while traveling. Wild pigs can establish populations and home ranges in an array of landscapes, but our results demonstrate male and female pigs exhibit clear differences in movement behavior and there are key resources associated with common behaviors that can be targeted to improve the efficiency of management programs.
阐明野猪（Sus scrofa）行为与景观属性之间的相关性，可以帮助推进控制种群的管理策略。我们使用来自美国东南部的 49 头野猪的 GPS 数据，使用隐马尔可夫模型定义运动路径特征，并分配行为（例如休息、觅食、旅行）。然后，我们根据饲料可用性（即低饲料、高饲料），探索了这两种行为与两性在两个不同季节之间的资源选择之间的联系。在高饲料季节，雌性表现出黄昏活动模式，而在低饲料季节则表现出可变模式，而雄性在两个季节都表现出夜间活动模式。野猪在所有行为状态下都选择低地硬木和茂密的树冠覆盖作为栖息地，在两个季节都是如此。雄性在低饲料季节觅食时会选择更多种类的植被，而不是在高饲料季节，并且在穿越季节时会增加对线性人为特征的使用。野猪可以在各种景观中建立种群和家域，但我们的研究结果表明，雄性和雌性野猪的运动行为存在明显差异，并且存在与常见行为相关的关键资源，可以针对这些资源来提高管理计划的效率。
