Skip to content

A Small Fraction of Wild Boar Showed Disproportionately High Movement and Contact Across Europe

Two wild boars standing clearly on a forest track in England
Research · Ecology

A Europe-wide synthesis of GPS data from wild boar (Sus scrofa) found that most animals were relatively sedentary over short time windows, while a small fraction showed much higher movement and contact intensity. The report, published on 13 March 2026, combined telemetry from 743 wild boar monitored across 54 study areas in 13 European countries. Movement and contact measures were summarised in 14-day windows, a timescale chosen because it is relevant to African swine fever epidemiology.

The dataset contained nearly 3.9 million GPS locations collected between 2003 and 2024. Across the study, the median maximum displacement was about 1 km within a 14-day period, although cumulative travel distance was around 50 km over the same interval. This contrast showed that limited net displacement did not necessarily mean little movement within an animal’s range. Over two-month analyses, most animals still showed strong site fidelity, but a small subset made movements longer than 10 km; the maximum recorded displacement was about 66 km.

Seasonal peaks differed among behaviours

The seasonal peaks differed among behaviours. Movement rates, home-range size and nocturnality were highest in autumn and winter, between-group contacts peaked in winter and spring, and contacts with pig farms peaked in spring and late summer. Males used larger areas and connected social groups more than females. Variation in movement and between-group contact was greatest among subadult males, while adult males had the most frequent contacts with pig farms.

Landscape structure also shaped movement and contacts

Landscape structure also mattered. Intermediate forest cover and forest–agricultural mosaics were associated with higher movement rates, wider ranging and more between-group and farm contacts. Higher wild-boar density was linked to smaller home ranges and shorter displacement but more contacts with pig farms; between-group contacts instead peaked at intermediate densities rather than increasing steadily with density. Drive hunting was associated with greater movement, range expansion and nocturnality, but did not consistently increase long-term net displacement or direct contact rates.

The authors identify this unevenness among individuals, seasons and landscapes as an important feature for African swine fever modelling and control. Rather than assuming that all wild boar contribute equally to potential spread, the report highlights highly mobile animals and periods of increased movement and contact as especially relevant to surveillance and biosecurity planning.

Sources and image credit

  1. ENETWILD Consortium, Cerri, J., Morelle, K., Plis, K., Acevedo, P., Alexandrov, T., Apollonio, M., Arnold, J., Bas, G., Baubet, E., Brivio, F., Brogi, R., Casaer, J., Chamaille-Jammes, S., Della Libera, F., Farkas, A., Fiderer, C., Fischer, C., Fodor, J.-T., … Podgórski, T. (2026). Estimation of wild boar movement and social behaviour parameters relevant for ASF control across ecological, demographic and anthropogenic gradients. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18998680Primary ENETWILD report published 13 March 2026. It synthesised nearly 3.9 million GPS locations from 743 wild boar across 13 European countries, describing variation in movement, home-range size and contact patterns across seasons, sexes, landscapes and population densities.

Image: Forester2009 / Wikimedia Commons — two wild boars (Sus scrofa) on a forest track near Bixslade in the Forest of Dean, England. Illustrative photograph, not from the European GPS dataset. · CC BY-SA 3.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Ecology

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Wild Boar Sus scrofa Explore species

Independent research and conservation news archive

Did you find this information useful?

Wildlife Vagabond is independently built and maintained. Voluntary support helps cover source verification, hosting and continued work on research and conservation news.

Support Wildlife Vagabond

The news archive will remain freely available.