USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, P.O. Box 700, New Ellenton, SC, 29809, USA.
USDA Forest Service, Shawnee National Forest, 602 North First St., Vienna, IL, 62995, USA.
Sci Rep. 2021 Sep 22;11(1):18821. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97798-z.
Interest in control methods for invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) has increased due to their range expansion, population growth, and an improved understanding of their destructive ecological and economic effects. Recent technological advances in traps for control of pig populations facilitate capture of entire social groups (sounders), but the efficacy of "whole-sounder" trapping strategies is heavily dependent on the degree of territoriality among sounders, a topic little research has explored. We assessed territoriality in wild pig sounders on the Savannah River Site, South Carolina, USA, and examined whether availability of food resources provided by a municipal-waste landfill affected among-sounder territoriality. We estimated utilization distribution overlap and dynamic interactions among 18 neighboring sounders around a landfill. We found that although neighboring sounders overlapped in space, intensity of use in shared areas was uniformly low, indicating territorial behavior. Neighbors tended to share slightly more space when closer to the landfill waste cells, indicating availability of a super-abundant resource somewhat weakens the degree of territoriality among sounders. Nevertheless, we conclude that sounders behaved in a generally territorial manner, and we discuss implications for whole-sounder trapping programs, particularly near concentrated resources such as landfills and crop fields.
由于入侵野猪（Sus scrofa）的分布范围扩大、种群数量增长以及对其破坏性生态和经济影响认识的提高，人们对其控制方法的兴趣日益浓厚。最近，用于控制猪群的陷阱技术的进步促进了整个社会群体（sounders）的捕获，但“整体捕获”策略的效果在很大程度上取决于 sounders 之间的领地性程度，而这一主题很少有研究探讨过。我们评估了美国南卡罗来纳州萨凡纳河站点野猪 sounders 的领地性，并研究了市政垃圾填埋场提供的食物资源的可用性是否会影响 sounders 之间的领地性。我们估算了围绕垃圾填埋场的 18 个相邻 sounders 的利用度分布重叠和动态相互作用。我们发现，尽管相邻的 sounders 在空间上重叠，但共享区域的使用强度均匀较低，表明存在领地行为。当 sounders 更接近垃圾填埋场的废物单元格时，它们往往会共享更多的空间，这表明存在一种超级丰富的资源会在一定程度上削弱 sounders 之间的领地性。然而，我们的结论是，sounders 表现出普遍的领地行为，我们讨论了这对整体捕获计划的影响，特别是在集中资源（如垃圾填埋场和农田）附近。
