Mapping wild boar density across Europe: combining spatial models and density estimates

Bibtex

@misc{a5a12ae2-3452-4a00-a76d-4d59002bfc4d,
title = "Mapping wild boar density across Europe: combining spatial models and density estimates",
abstract = "The wild boar population in Europe has been growing in recent decades prior to the arrival of African swine fever (ASF), which has now spread across much of eastern Europe. We obtained two independent sources of wild boar data: occurrence sightings and hunting harvest. We combined these with environmental predictors and used them in two species distribution modelling approaches, a Maxent approach for occurrence data and a GLMM for the hunting harvest, to produce output at the European level. The output of these models was then combined with robust and comparable density estimates from 77 sites across Europe to produce a density estimate and total population size for each country prior to documenting ASF in that country (from 2007 for Georgia to 2022 for most EU countries that are still free from disease). The output indicates a total population of wild boar in Europe between 13.5 and 19.6 million individuals prior to the hunting season each year in the core wild boar range. Population estimates of wild boar in Europe based on occurrence sightings and hunting harvest are highly similar yet vary substantially among countries. Although the output may need to be adjusted where local factors affect the population (e.g., areas of range spread) the output can be used for assessing risk of disease spread and effect of management. We propose that the availability of density estimates from the European Observatory of Wildlife will permit robust population estimates for other species of interest since the methodology is consistent between species and habitats.",
author = "Graham C. Smith and Joaquin Vicente and Simon Croft and Daniel Warren and José A Blanco-Aguiar and Pelayo Acevedo and Tancredi Guerrasio and Massimo Scandura and Marco Apollonio and Joao Carvalho and Rita Tinoco Torres and Nuno Pinto and Guilherme Ares-Pereira and Carlos Fonseca and Oliver Keuling and Nikica Šprem and Alexander Gavashelishvili and Niko Kerdikoshvili and Vasili Shakun and Valerie De Waele and Alain Licoppe and Radim Plhal and Cláudio Bicho and Iván Gutiérrez and João Santos and Elena Buzan and Boštjan Pokorny and Dragan Gačić and Alper Erturk and Anil Soyumert and Stoyan Stoyanov and Gradimir Valentinov Gruychev and Sonia Illanas and Javier Fernandez-Lopez and Sándor Csányi and Kamila Plis and Tomasz Podgórski and Jim Casaer and Stefania Zanet and Ezio Ferroglio",
year = "2026",
month = jan,
day = "20",
doi = "https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-026-02059-x",
language = "English",
publisher = "Springer",
address = "Belgium,
type = "Other"
}

Authors

Graham C. Smith
Joaquin Vicente
Simon Croft
Daniel Warren
José A Blanco-Aguiar
Pelayo Acevedo
Tancredi Guerrasio
Massimo Scandura
Marco Apollonio
Joao Carvalho
Rita Tinoco Torres
Nuno Pinto
Guilherme Ares-Pereira
Carlos Fonseca
Oliver Keuling
Nikica Šprem
Alexander Gavashelishvili
Niko Kerdikoshvili
Vasili Shakun
Valerie De Waele
Alain Licoppe
Radim Plhal
Cláudio Bicho
Iván Gutiérrez
João Santos
Elena Buzan
Boštjan Pokorny
Dragan Gačić
Alper Erturk
Anil Soyumert
Stoyan Stoyanov
Gradimir Valentinov Gruychev
Sonia Illanas
Javier Fernandez-Lopez
Sándor Csányi
Kamila Plis
Tomasz Podgórski
Jim Casaer
Stefania Zanet
Ezio Ferroglio