Climatic and topographic tolerance limits of wild boar in Eurasia: implications for their expansion

Abstract

Wild boar populations have continuously grown over the last century. This increase has led to various conflicts, including damage to agriculture and disturbed population equilibrium in natural areas, and it is a health threat due to animal and zoonotic infectious diseases, all with a high economic impact (e.g. Classical Swine Fever, African swine fever, tuberculosis or brucellosis). Addressing these problems requires understanding the geographic, climatic and topographic tolerance limits of wild boar. In this work, we determine these limits in Eurasia by spatially comparing the most widely accepted map on wild boar distribution (International Union for Conservation of Nature ,IUCN, 2008) with georeferenced records of wild boar presence (n = 34,233) gather from ecological and health sources. Results suggest a geographical expansion of the wild boar in the Eurasian zone outside the traditionally area described by the IUCN map. The specie has entered new biotopes and ecoregions, such as the equatorial region, where its presence is mainly associated with the large Asian plant monocultures. These results will support the development of population models, identification of permanent populations and habitats, and more effective decision-making about health and natural resource management.