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[LUM#21] The Wild Boar of Discord

[, ] - Published on in Science and Society

One of the goals of Raphaël Mathevet and Simon Chamaillé, researchers at the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology who coordinated a project on integrated wild boar management, is to gain a better understanding of wild boars in order to coexist more effectively with them.

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With 17 million hectares of forested land, France’s forests have regained the size they had before medieval deforestation. This rapidly expanding habitat is home to more than 1.5 million wild boars, which are pushing its boundaries ever further. This proximity is sometimes a source of tension: “The increase in wild boar densities is associated with a rise in agricultural damage, a growing number of road collisions, and often conflicts between hunters, farmers, protected area managers, and other users of rural and peri-urban lands, ” explains Raphaël Mathevet, a researcher at the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology1.

How can we help all these stakeholders come together to find the right place for wild boars? To facilitate this coexistence, Simon Chamaillé and Raphaël Mathevet have coordinated a project dedicated to the integrated management of this species. “Gaining a better understanding of the animals’ biology, behavior, and habits—as well as the functional, economic, social, and ecological interdependencies of the affected areas—is essential for fostering a collaborative dynamic, ” explains Raphaël Mathevet.

Researchers set up camp in the Gardon Gorges and the Écrins National Park, bringing along GPS collars and camera traps to study the movements of wild boars. Their goal: to gather factual data on how the animals use the landscape, and thus determine whether protected areas where hunting is prohibited serve as refuges for them. But they also wanted to meet with local residents to share this data with them and help them better understand wild boars.

“The communication challenge is enormous; it’s also a genuine project in scientific and social outreach,” say the researchers, who developed a serious game for the occasion that, for example, invites hunters to take on the role of a wild boar population. “This allows them to adopt the animal’s perspective and reflect on the effects of their practices, ” notes Raphaël Mathevet. These methods are now being adapted by scientists to an urban setting as part of a project with the cities of Montpellier and Nîmes. The goal: to better track wild boar movements in the city and to better understand the relationships that city dwellers have with these animals, with whom we increasingly share urban wastelands, parks, and gardens.

19 wild boars were fitted with GPS collars and tagged with ear tags.
About forty camera traps were deployed continuously over the course of more than a year. They reveal that a wide variety of mammals — squirrels, badgers, deer, martens, genets, foxes, otters, and wolves — frequent the same pathways as wild boars.
About forty camera traps were deployed continuously over the course of more than a year. They reveal that a wide variety of mammals — squirrels, badgers, deer, martens, genets, foxes, otters, and wolves — frequent the same pathways as wild boars.
About forty camera traps were deployed continuously over the course of more than a year. They reveal that a wide variety of mammals — squirrels, badgers, deer, martens, genets, foxes, otters, and wolves — frequent the same pathways as wild boars.
About forty camera traps were deployed continuously over the course of more than a year. They reveal that a wide variety of mammals — squirrels, badgers, deer, martens, genets, foxes, otters, and wolves — frequent the same pathways as wild boars.
About forty camera traps were deployed continuously over the course of more than a year. They reveal that a wide variety of mammals — squirrels, badgers, deer, martens, genets, foxes, otters, and wolves — frequent the same pathways as wild boars.
About forty camera traps were deployed continuously over the course of more than a year. They reveal that a wide variety of mammals — squirrels, badgers, deer, martens, genets, foxes, otters, and wolves — frequent the same pathways as wild boars.
Role-playing provides a fun yet serious simulation that encourages the sharing of perspectives and knowledge about how interactions between agriculture, hunting, and wild boars work.

Watch Raphaël Mathevet’s lecture at the Agora des savoirs: “Wild Boars: The Geographies of a Political Animal”

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  1. Cefe (CNRS, UM, IRD, EPHE)
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