Factors influencing wild boar rooting in a forest environment

Abstract The wild boar population has been steadily increasing worldwide over the last few decades, causing increasing damage to forests and crops. In the south-eastern Czech Republic in 2022 and 2023, 3,899 rooted areas recorded in sample lines were assessed for a range of properties and analyzed. The rooted areas were assessed for their size, the proportion of rooting in organic and mineral layers, the depth of rooting in organic and mineral layers, and the proportion of bare soil, grasses and dicots. Our objectives were to describe which environmental factors affect wild boar rooting in ecologically valuable and protected Pannonian thermophilic sandy oak forests which are extremely threatened by desiccation and disturbance. These forests support large numbers of wild boar throughout the year due to their rich food supply. 10.93% of the forest area was disturbed by wild boars in the first year and 7.95% in the second year. We found that tree species, stand age, stocking density and height of the main tree species all had a significant effect on the size of the rooted area. The distance from streams and feeding sites had a significant effect on rooted area size, with larger rooted areas closer to streams and feeding sites. Vegetation cover (grasses and dicots) was also positively correlated with the size of rooted areas. Our results show that rooting depth in either the organic or mineral horizons is not affected by total rooted area.