Hunting indexes from official data as a tool to assess the evolution of wild boar populations in Spain

Abstract

Wild boar (Sus scrofa) has become in one of the most abundant and widely distributed big game hunting species in our country, causing important agricultural, ecological and urban damages in the last years. This research evaluates its demographic growth considering the official hunting data gathered during a period of ten years from five different autonomous communities. Three hunting indicators are described from these data: hunting density as the connection between the number of hunted animals and the hunting hectares in each autonomous community; hunting effort as the number of hunting licenses per hundred hectares, and hunting success as the number of hunted animals per hundred hunters or per hundred hunting licenses. These rates show an important increase in wild boar populations, just as a significant decrease in the number of hunting licenses. According to this, Catalonia and Aragon present the highest values of hunting success and density, but also a fewer hunting effort in the case of Aragon. On the other hand, this research discusses the use of cercones in hunting grounds. In spite of the fact that cercones increases the number of captures, a high environmental and health impact may occur favouring the prevalence of diseases.