Abstract
Over the past few decades, the wild boar has been undergoing an expansion in Europe, which may have negatively affected small game populations and particularly red-legged partridges. We aim to evaluate the red-legged partridge nest predation by wild boar at high boar abundances by placing artificial nests in nine big game estates. Predation rates were compared between nests placed in fenced controlled plots with no wild boar access (but accessible to other predators) and open plots in which the wild boar gains access. The proportion of nests and eggs predated was significantly lower in wild boar exclusion areas, recording a predation rate of 50 % for the nests and 38 % for the eggs in these areas, whereas in the presence of wild boar, the predation rate was 80 % for the nests and 58 % for the eggs. Moreover, the wild boar was identified as the main nest predator in unfenced areas, accounting for 36 and 48 % of the predated nests and eggs respectively. This study sheds light on the wild boar predation on nests of the red-legged partridges.
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Communicated by C. Gortázar
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Figure 1
Map of Spain and the Córdoba province (grey), showing the location of the hunting estates (dark) (JPEG 21 kb)
Figure 2
Frequency of the number of eggs predated in fenced treatment (a) and unfenced treatment (b) (JPEG 23 kb)
(JPEG 24 kb)
Fig. 3
Average eggs predated per nest for each predator group in every treatment (fenced vs. unfenced) (PNG 15 kb)
ESM 1
(DOC 41 kb)
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Carpio, A.J., Guerrero-Casado, J., Tortosa, F.S. et al. Predation of simulated red-legged partridge nests in big game estates from South Central Spain. Eur J Wildl Res 60, 391–394 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-013-0786-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-013-0786-8