Food habits and impact of rooting behaviour of the invasive wild boar, Sus scrofa, in a protected area of the Monte Desert, Argentina

MARÍA FERNANDA CUEVAS, AGUSTINA NOVILLO, CLAUDIA CAMPOS, MARIA ANA DACAR, RICARDO A. OJEDA

JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2010 p. 1 - 4

0140-1963

The wildboar, Sus scrofa, wasintroducedinthecentralregionofArgentinaintheearly20thcentury.A small feralpopulationinvadedthewesternareaoftheManandBiosphereReserveofÑacuñán,Argentina in theearly1980’s. Thepurposeofourstudywastoprovideinformationaboutthedietofwildboarsin the semiaridregionofArgentinaandtoassesstheirpotentialeffectonvegetationthroughsoilrooting. Weanalyzed41faecalsamplesandcomparedcoverplantcompositionbetweenrootedandnon-rooted soil. Ninety-five percentofthewildboardietconsistedofdifferentparts(leaves,stems,glumes,fruits, seeds, andbulbs)of36plantspecies,whilearthropodsandanimaltissuerepresentedonly5%ofthediet. Two plantspecies(Sphaeralceaminiata and Pitraeacuneato-ovata) composedthebulkofthediet,rep- resenting almost50%ofthetotalitemsfoundinthefaeces.Plantcoverwassignificantly different between rootedandnon-rootedareas.Rootedareasweredominatedby Pitraeacuneato-ovata, whereas the coverof Lycium sp washigherinnon-rootedareas.Thisisthe first studyaddressingtheecologyofthe wild boarinaprotectedareaoftheMonteDesertbiomeofArgentina. Sus scrofa, wasintroducedinthecentralregionofArgentinaintheearly20thcentury.A small feralpopulationinvadedthewesternareaoftheManandBiosphereReserveofÑacuñán,Argentina in theearly1980’s. Thepurposeofourstudywastoprovideinformationaboutthedietofwildboarsin the semiaridregionofArgentinaandtoassesstheirpotentialeffectonvegetationthroughsoilrooting. Weanalyzed41faecalsamplesandcomparedcoverplantcompositionbetweenrootedandnon-rooted soil. Ninety-five percentofthewildboardietconsistedofdifferentparts(leaves,stems,glumes,fruits, seeds, andbulbs)of36plantspecies,whilearthropodsandanimaltissuerepresentedonly5%ofthediet. Two plantspecies(Sphaeralceaminiata and Pitraeacuneato-ovata) composedthebulkofthediet,rep- resenting almost50%ofthetotalitemsfoundinthefaeces.Plantcoverwassignificantly different between rootedandnon-rootedareas.Rootedareasweredominatedby Pitraeacuneato-ovata, whereas the coverof Lycium sp washigherinnon-rootedareas.Thisisthe first studyaddressingtheecologyofthe wild boarinaprotectedareaoftheMonteDesertbiomeofArgentina. 2010ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved