Cargando…

Heavy Youngsters—Habitat and Climate Factors Lead to a Significant Increase in Body Weight of Wild Boar Females

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Long-term monitoring of wild boar reproduction in Lower Saxony, Germany, facilitated the description of body weight development in two different habitat types over an 18-year period. Here, not only the sampling year but also habitat and climate factors proved to be of considerable im...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gethöffer, Friederike, Keuling, Oliver, Maistrelli, Claudia, Ludwig, Tobias, Siebert, Ursula
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10000140/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36899755
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13050898
_version_ 1784903802220969984
author Gethöffer, Friederike
Keuling, Oliver
Maistrelli, Claudia
Ludwig, Tobias
Siebert, Ursula
author_facet Gethöffer, Friederike
Keuling, Oliver
Maistrelli, Claudia
Ludwig, Tobias
Siebert, Ursula
author_sort Gethöffer, Friederike
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Long-term monitoring of wild boar reproduction in Lower Saxony, Germany, facilitated the description of body weight development in two different habitat types over an 18-year period. Here, not only the sampling year but also habitat and climate factors proved to be of considerable importance for the development of Sus scrofa body weight. Additionally, of particular interest were differences in the timing of puberty achievement among habitats. ABSTRACT: As one of the most abundant game species in Europe, European wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations prove highly adaptable to cultivated landscapes. The ongoing process of climate change and the high agricultural yields seem to further optimize the living conditions for this species. In long-term reproduction monitoring, we collected data on the body weight of wild boar females. Over an 18-year period, the body weight of wild boar females increased continuously, then stopped and decreased. It was possible to detect differences between the body weights of animals from forest and agricultural areas. For these areas, differences in body weight development also led to a significant distinction in the onset of puberty. We conclude that, even in a highly cultivated landscape, forested areas provide habitat characteristics that may strongly influence reproduction. Second, with dominant agricultural areas in Germany, wild boar reproduction has been favored in recent decades.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10000140
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-100001402023-03-11 Heavy Youngsters—Habitat and Climate Factors Lead to a Significant Increase in Body Weight of Wild Boar Females Gethöffer, Friederike Keuling, Oliver Maistrelli, Claudia Ludwig, Tobias Siebert, Ursula Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Long-term monitoring of wild boar reproduction in Lower Saxony, Germany, facilitated the description of body weight development in two different habitat types over an 18-year period. Here, not only the sampling year but also habitat and climate factors proved to be of considerable importance for the development of Sus scrofa body weight. Additionally, of particular interest were differences in the timing of puberty achievement among habitats. ABSTRACT: As one of the most abundant game species in Europe, European wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations prove highly adaptable to cultivated landscapes. The ongoing process of climate change and the high agricultural yields seem to further optimize the living conditions for this species. In long-term reproduction monitoring, we collected data on the body weight of wild boar females. Over an 18-year period, the body weight of wild boar females increased continuously, then stopped and decreased. It was possible to detect differences between the body weights of animals from forest and agricultural areas. For these areas, differences in body weight development also led to a significant distinction in the onset of puberty. We conclude that, even in a highly cultivated landscape, forested areas provide habitat characteristics that may strongly influence reproduction. Second, with dominant agricultural areas in Germany, wild boar reproduction has been favored in recent decades. MDPI 2023-03-01 /pmc/articles/PMC10000140/ /pubmed/36899755 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13050898 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gethöffer, Friederike
Keuling, Oliver
Maistrelli, Claudia
Ludwig, Tobias
Siebert, Ursula
Heavy Youngsters—Habitat and Climate Factors Lead to a Significant Increase in Body Weight of Wild Boar Females
title Heavy Youngsters—Habitat and Climate Factors Lead to a Significant Increase in Body Weight of Wild Boar Females
title_full Heavy Youngsters—Habitat and Climate Factors Lead to a Significant Increase in Body Weight of Wild Boar Females
title_fullStr Heavy Youngsters—Habitat and Climate Factors Lead to a Significant Increase in Body Weight of Wild Boar Females
title_full_unstemmed Heavy Youngsters—Habitat and Climate Factors Lead to a Significant Increase in Body Weight of Wild Boar Females
title_short Heavy Youngsters—Habitat and Climate Factors Lead to a Significant Increase in Body Weight of Wild Boar Females
title_sort heavy youngsters—habitat and climate factors lead to a significant increase in body weight of wild boar females
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10000140/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36899755
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani13050898
work_keys_str_mv AT gethofferfriederike heavyyoungstershabitatandclimatefactorsleadtoasignificantincreaseinbodyweightofwildboarfemales
AT keulingoliver heavyyoungstershabitatandclimatefactorsleadtoasignificantincreaseinbodyweightofwildboarfemales
AT maistrelliclaudia heavyyoungstershabitatandclimatefactorsleadtoasignificantincreaseinbodyweightofwildboarfemales
AT ludwigtobias heavyyoungstershabitatandclimatefactorsleadtoasignificantincreaseinbodyweightofwildboarfemales
AT siebertursula heavyyoungstershabitatandclimatefactorsleadtoasignificantincreaseinbodyweightofwildboarfemales