News

[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 with them more effectively.

photos © Creaturart, Francois Roux, Hedi-Kun – stock.adobe.com
Listen to this article as a podcast on your favorite platform

With 17 million hectares of forested land, France’s forests are returning to 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 coexistence is sometimes a source of tension: “The increase in wild boar densities is linked to a resurgence of agricultural damage, a rise in road collisions, and often conflicts between hunters, farmers, protected area managers, and other users of rural and suburban lands, ” explains Raphaël Mathevet, a researcher at the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology1.

How can we help all these stakeholders reach a consensus on finding the right place for wild boars? To facilitate this coexistence, Simon Chamaillé and Raphaël Mathevet coordinated a project dedicated to the integrated management of this animal. “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. They also sought to engage 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, ” emphasizes Raphaël Mathevet. Scientists are now applying these methods to urban settings as part of a project with the cities of Montpellier and Nîmes. The goal is to better track wild boar movements in the city and to gain a deeper understanding of the relationships city dwellers have with these animals, with whom we are increasingly sharing urban wastelands, parks, and gardens.

19 wild boars were fitted with GPS collars and tagged using ear tags.
About 40 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 40 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 40 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 40 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 40 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 40 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”

Check out theUM podcasts,UM available on your favorite platform (Spotify, Deezer, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, etc.).

Discover all episodes of LUM lu
  1. Cefe (CNRS, UM, IRD, EPHE)
    ↩︎

Keywords: , , , , , ,