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The global impact of wild boar Sus scrofa on terrestrial biodiversity


wild boar 

 Abstract

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is a comprehensive database of over 120,000 species and is a powerful tool for assessing the threat of invasive species to global biodiversity. Many problem species have gained global recognition through comprehensive threat assessments that quantify the threat these species pose to biodiversity using large datasets such as the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, the overall threat to biodiversity posed by wild boar (Sus scrofa) remains poorly understood despite well-documented impacts at the ecosystem level. In this study, we used the IUCN Red List to estimate the impacts of this globally distributed species across its native and non-native range. Here we show that wild boars threaten 672 species in 54 different countries around the world. Most of these species are listed as critically endangered or endangered, and 14 species have been threatened with extinction due to the direct impact of feral hogs. Our results show that threats from feral swine are pervasive across all taxonomic groups and that island endemics and non-native taxa within the range of feral swine are particularly vulnerable.

an introduction

Global biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate, with species. Introduction The global rate is alarming, with extinction rates 1,000 times higher than normal and potentially increasing 10,000 times in the future1Extinction rates are 1,000 times higher than normal and maybe 10,000 times higher.. Understanding the processes by which invasive species affect native organisms and their impact across their range of introduction is an essential step to help guide conservation actions to mitigate biodiversity loss. Large-scale invasive species threat assessments, based on comprehensive databases such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, are commonly used to identify the most threatened areas and species and to guide prioritization of conservation actions. To date, a handful of invasive predators, such as rats, ferrets, domestic dogs, and feral cats, have gained notoriety through global assessments highlighting their distribution, general diet, and the extent to which they affect species of special interest 4, 6, 7 , 8. However, the global impacts of feral pigs (Sus scrofa) remain poorly understood despite similarities in their global distribution and the potential for multi-level impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Wild boars are identified as one of the "100 Most Invasive Alien Species in the World" along with other frequently discussed invasive wildlife species such as cats (Felis catus) and mice (Rattus rattus). However, pigs are unique among other problematic terrestrial invasive species in that they are carnivorous generalists and act as large predators and herbivores throughout their native and non-native range. They have been documented prior to their appearance on a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate species in insular and continental ecosystems 14, 15, 16, disrupting nesting sites and plant assemblages, 17, 18 hybridizing with other endangered suids, competing with native fauna, and serving as vectors for disease transmission 13,22. In addition to their direct effects on wildlife and plant communities, they are known to disrupt ecosystem structure due to their unique rooting and burrowing behavior. As a result, pigs are ecosystem engineers, having significant secondary effects on organisms by physically altering habitat characteristics. Despite these well-documented effects of wild boars on species and ecosystems, the degree to which wild boars pose a threat to biodiversity in general remains largely unknown.

Although Global Summaries of Porcine Effects exist, they have been either global qualitative papers describing the effects of several small-scale quantitative studies 9, 10, 13, 24, 25, 26, 27, or large-scale quantitative studies addressing a specific process by which pigs are threats to the environment (predation, herbivory, or ecosystem engineering) 4, 11, 28 or its impact on a specific type or area of an ecosystem 29. These studies have undoubtedly led to a better understanding of the impact of wild boar in their native and non-native habitats, and interest in boar research has doubled in recent years, raising increasing concerns among conservationists, farmers, and the general public who have been affected by boar. These global qualitative review papers help identify the processes by which hogs threaten ecosystems, but do not provide detailed quantitative information on the number, type, and location of threatened species. As a result, pigs have no assessment that addresses the potential role in global biodiversity decline

Global assessments of threats to species at risk have improved the effectiveness of conservation decision-making by incorporating this understanding into decision-making.30 By identifying areas and taxa most vulnerable to invasive and harmful species threats, conservation organizations have been able to address biodiversity loss in a more targeted manner. For example, systematic pest control of mammals introduced to islands in recent decades is a direct response to a growing body of literature that includes many species of mammals introduced to islands largely responsible for the decline in island biodiversity.. As a result of these coordinated and directed efforts, rodents, goats, and cats have been the most common species eradicated on the islands despite similar distribution and the potential impact of feral pigs. In addition to increasing the effectiveness of conservation interventions, a broader understanding of threats to at-risk taxa from introduced or pest species highlights research gaps and allows for the more targeted allocation of research efforts to understudied or poorly understood systems and species. To effectively mitigate the impacts of feral hogs across their global scale and direct research efforts to understudied areas and taxa, we need to better understand their role in global biodiversity decline.

In this paper, we quantify the threats of pigs to plants and wildlife, including all processes by which pigs threaten these IUCN Red Listed taxa and all terrestrial taxa with adequate assessment information. Using this information, we determine the number of taxa threatened by wild boar in the IUCN Red List and the most vulnerable taxonomic groups. We also identify the most common types of effects and the regions of the world that may be considered critical in terms of effects on hogs. In addition, we present a comparative analysis of hog threats to endemic island species, mainland taxa, and threatened taxa across native and non-native boar ranges, and conclude by identifying urgent research and management priorities.

Methods

Methods We received a complete copy of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species for all property taxes in May 2018. For the purposes of this assessment, the pilots refer to each unique IUCN Red List entry, which is often at the species level but may also include subspecies and diversity. To exclude ceremonies that fall outside the global range of wild boar, we obtained information on the original range of pigs in the IUCN Red List and range information. Non-local distribution from Lewis et al. 201733. Due to the differences in precision between the range information provided for each IUCN Red List taxon and the range information obtained for swine, most range information is determined at the state level. However, when more detailed and accurate range information was submitted for pigs and IUCN strains, range information was determined on the next available administrative boundary (e.g., states or provinces). Taxes initially found in areas where boars were described as reasonable were present and included by Lewis et al. 2017. However, if no rituals were threatened by boars in these ranges, all rituals in these areas were excluded. All other flights with ranges outside the original or non-native range of wild boars were not included in the final dataset. This large database is filtered using a systematic keyword search in R 3.6.0 to identify keywords in the "Key Threats" section for each category that contains any of the following keywords - hog, hog*, pigs, local, Sue, Scrap, wild boar, wild boar*, pigs, pig, pig*, pigs, 35 pigs. This list of keywords was compiled based on common names to describe pigs in the management literature. This script reported a total of 815 ratings for manual review. We did not include threats related to domestic swine, but domestic swine described as "free-ranging" were treated as feral. Also, some species were not directly threatened by pigs, but by human hunting methods caused by the presence of pigs. These threats were noted but not included in the analysis.

The major threats section was read by hand and processed by two raters. False-positive results were reported and removed from a subset of taxa identified as threatened by swine for a final group of 672 ceremonies. Using the definition of "threat" in the IUCN Red List, any reference to wild repatriation threats hereafter referred to as processes (such as predation and interference) that "affect, affect or may directly affect the estimated taxon" can be defined. To determine the threat level of wild boar to these ceremonies, we used an approach similar to previous studies and classified the threat level as "primary," "secondary," or "potential" based on information in the text of the "Initial section threats and ceremonies. Current Threat Status 4,7,8. We chose to include "reasonable" rather than "implied" as many other studies do because of the uncertainty surrounding some of the threat transcripts associated with threatened classifications. Threats

Wild boars were sometimes identified by the applicant on the basis of overlap in the distribution of threatened species with wild boars, but sometimes lacked evidence of direct impact. In these cases, boar threats were classified as "potential." When threats were related to extinct or critically endangered species, text referring to any threat from wild boar resulted in classification as "significant" unless sufficient detail was included to classify the threat. Ritual threats are at least by default considered secondary, as are threats secondary to near-threatened rituals, unless otherwise noted. For each species threatened by pigs, we classified the threat into one or more of the following categories: 'prey', 'disturbance', 'disease risk', 'competition', and 'hybridization'. Unless otherwise noted, boar plant consumption is considered "predation" and "disturbance" because it affects vegetation structure in addition to its direct effect on plants. Similarly, digging of optophone (reptiles and amphibians) and ground-nesting bird nests were treated as "prey" and "disturbance" because it results in a disturbance at the nesting site as well as direct mortality of reptiles and birds...

Band information for each taxon obtained from the IUCN Red List was classified into 17 different regions (Figure 1). These areas were also classified as isolated or terrestrial-based on their geographic location, to allow for comparative threat analysis. Because the IUCN Red List range data are broken down by country, many island endemics were documented as occurring in the mainland countries that ruled the island... And the island it was on. These cross insertions may have increased threats occurring in mainland areas, in cases where the species is on an island but not on the mainland. Using Microsoft Excel's built-in filtering functions and more detailed range information from the IUCN Red List "Range Description" text, each of the taxa included in the list was added, which was manually filtered by reading the range information for each taxon. Through this process, records of endemic species outside their actual range were removed.

To determine threats to the island and terrestrial endemics, each of the 17 different regions was classified as an island or terrestrial system. The terrestrial subgroup included all terrestrial system pilots found in non-domestic or domestic boar ranges. The archipelago is filtered to include only species endemic to each island region (e.g. Polynesia). For the purposes of this analysis, only species found on islands and mainland areas were included in the assessment of mainland threats and their removal from the archipelago. The rate of threatened rituals by region (n = 17 regions) is then calculated by dividing the total number of threatened rituals in the region by the number of threatened ritual pigs in the region. The average rate of threatened taxa and standard deviations for endemic species (n = 8 areas) and terrestrial species (n = 9 areas) were then calculated using the summary data in the dplyr package version 0.8.3. In R version 3.6.035.36. To determine ritual threats in non-native and domestic ranges for wild boar, consider the ratio of total ritual to ritual threats for each range. The taxon is threatened by feral hogs whose ranges overlap with the domestic and non-domestic ranges of feral hogs in both cases.

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