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Water Proximity Was the Strongest Predictor of Wild Boar Occurrence in Argentina’s Monte Desert

Adult wild boar wallowing in muddy water
Research · Ecology

Proximity to water was the strongest predictor of wild boar (Sus scrofa) occurrence in Argentina’s Monte Desert, while daily activity differed between a protected reserve and a neighbouring grazed property. The study examined how an invasive mammal that is physiologically poorly suited to arid conditions persists in a dryland where it has been established since the 1980s.

Researchers used 98 camera-trap stations in the Ñacuñán Biosphere Reserve and an adjacent privately grazed field. Occupancy models estimated the probability that wild boar used a site while relating detections to environmental and human-related variables. This describes where the animals were likely to occur; it is not an estimate of population size.

Water proximity was the strongest predictor of occurrence

Sites closer to water sources had the highest predicted wild-boar occurrence. Human-related variables also had significant negative relationships with occupancy.

The water result is especially important in this dry landscape because permanent artificial watering points have been created for livestock. The authors argue that these reliable water sources can make otherwise strongly water-limited habitat more usable for wild boar and help the invasive population persist.

Activity shifted between the reserve and grazed land

The two areas showed only moderate overlap in daily activity, and the temporal distributions differed significantly. In the reserve, detections were divided mainly between crepuscular and nocturnal periods, each accounting for about 38.9% of activity. On the grazed property, wild boar were predominantly nocturnal, with 50% of detections occurring at night.

The authors interpret this flexible timing as part of the species’ behavioural response to both thermal stress and encounters with people. Greater nocturnality on the grazed property is consistent with avoiding human activity, while access to water remains central in both land-use settings.

The study therefore does not show that water availability alone determines population size or range expansion. It shows that proximity to water strongly predicted where wild boar occurred and that activity timing shifted between management settings. Within that framework, permanent livestock watering points may unintentionally facilitate wild-boar persistence in arid landscapes and create conditions that support further spread.

Sources and image credit

  1. Cuevas, M. F., Albanese, M. S., Cappa, F., Campos, V., Cona, M., Zeverini, D., Moreno, C., Jara, F., Mastrángelo, P., Navas, D., Porras, R., & Campos, C. M. (2026). Everything they do, they do it for the water – Behavioural adaptations of wild pigs to drylands in Argentina. Journal of Zoology, 329(4), 353–364. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.70136Primary research article first published 24 June 2026. Using 98 camera-trap stations in the Ñacuñán Biosphere Reserve and an adjacent grazed property, the study found proximity to water to be the strongest predictor of wild-pig occurrence. Daily activity differed significantly between the two land-use types; activity overlap was 0.57, with pigs predominantly crepuscular/nocturnal in the reserve and nocturnal on the grazed property. The authors highlight permanent livestock watering points as a resource that can facilitate wild-pig persistence in arid landscapes.

Image: Adult wild boar (Sus scrofa) wallowing in muddy water, photographed 6 April 2010. Photo: 4028mdk09 / Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0. Representative image illustrating the species' strong association with water; not an animal from the Argentina study. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

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