Hi Eric.

My understanding is that the number of wild boars hunted every year in France have grown by a factor 3 (or 5 depending on the source!) in the last 20 years (roughly half a million kills reported in 2012). - for a estimated population of somewha t more than a million. Aother good estimator is roadkills.

IN the 90, the population was estimated to be "not sufficient" so many measures were taken to increase that - obviously with good results.

Virtually all the wild ungulates in France are progressing, and so does the wild boar. The species is "gibier" and sometimes (depending on a decision - arreté préfectroal - can even be declared "nuisible" - detrimental.

Reasons generally mentioned:

Crop compensation -established in 1968. reducing tensions between hunters and farmers. The hunters may have to pay the damage if they don't hunt enough.

Raising "hunting" prices.

The value of a hunting lot depends on the density of wildlife (boars particularly). Therefore forest owners have a direct interest to allow population grow.

The develpment of mais cultivation - more food available

Regulated hunting practices and training of hunters - proved very succesfull. no shoot zones, and no hunting on genitors, respected by the hunting teams.

There used to be breeding and releases but this is no longer happening

Climate change - warmer winters allow the species to reach higher habitats?

Specific managing practices - such as feeding (either to protect crops by fixing populations inside the forest , or to ensure a thriving wild board population - the species reacts very well to food surplus in autumn - either natural if the oaks produce fruits, or if articifically created by feeding).

Finally, the hunter population is shriking (less recruits, and hunters getting older)...

You may want to have a look here:

ONCFS (2010). Faune Sauvage N° 288 – spécial gestion du sanglier

http://www.oncfs.gouv.fr/download.php?file_url=IMG/pdf/sanglier_gestion_2007.pdf

Hi Claude. Many thanks for the great input. Those are quite incredible kill rates (half a million kills in a population of about 1 million). As I had guessed there are quite a few different processes that take place (crop damage compensation, increased value of hunting but fewer hunters, better hunting management, climate change, increased food supplied, etc.). It would be interesting to know what other processes have taken place in other parts of Europe and whether it would be possible through regression analyses to tease out which factors have had most influence. There is an urgent need to turn around population declines of threatened Asian pig taxa, and resources are limited, so we want to provide responsible governments with guidance to points them towards the most effective measures.

You are right. The authors do claim they have no idea of the total population, so take that estimation with a pintch of salt.

Wild boar are black listed in Norway, with no limit in hunting quotas, although they were part of the Norwegian fauna till habitat modification by humans in the Holocene cause their extinction. However, in Sweden since the 1970's the wild boar population has exploded and now can be found almost throughout half of the country. So it is believed that the wild boar that are in southern Norway come from Sweden, where the species has been declared to be part of the Swedish fauna in 1998. In Sweden hunters have helped wild boar by moving them to increase their expansion and by supplementary feeding them. Climate will probably define the limit of distribution of wild boar in Norway. In winter 2010, an exceptionally cold one, hunters shot a much lower number of wild boar both in Sweden and in Norway.

Hi Claudia. Thanks, that's very interesting, and what is happening in Sweden and Norway seems to reflect processes throughout Europe. Pig population trends appear to be mostly influenced by hunters (i.e., bag numbers, hunting techniques, food provisioning, selectivity of hunting). Other factors that scientists (mostly from southern Europe) have recently mentioned to me included: increase in forest cover at national level, measure of landscape patchiness, predominant agricultural crops, frequency of mast years, trends in summer drought, trends in winter cold, colonization of agro-systems and peri-urban areas, crop compensation measures, new protected areas, increased public acceptance of wild boar, natural predators, human migration rural to urban areas, predominant religions (%), and trends in crop damage. So it's a pretty complex issue, and I am very keen to further unravel what are the most important human and ecological factors and what policy or other measures could best be taken to steer similar processes in other areas with wild pig species.

Hi Erik, in Italy we are also experiencing something similar to what already described by Claude and Claudia. According to public records the wild boar population is increasing since the '70s. Hunthing bags kept increasing despite the reduction in hunters number (and their increasing age) and so are crop damages and road kills. There is some economic support for damages prevention and refounding. However, in my opinion, there is no real information on densities and no guidelines in wildlife management at National scale. Every province decide for itself and quite often hunters provide additional feeding. I also think part of the increse is related to a change in agricultural practices