Background

The number of wild boars is increasing, as are the number of wild boar accidents. This is identified as an increasing problem for both traffic safety and national economy.

However, there are largely no measures to deal with the problem. Existing wildlife fences are designed for moose, while fauna fencing intended to work for wild boar (fine-meshed and attached to the ground) is found on very few road sections, and moreover its effectivity for wild boar is not really known.

Previous studies have shown that wild boar avoid crossing roads at high traffic densities, but it is otherwise not known to what extent traffic, roads and railways constitute barriers for wild boar. It is also unknown to what extent wild boar can use existing bridges (for local roads, water, etc.) or culverts to get passed the infrastructure. Feeding sites near roads have been put forward as a factor that can increase the risk of wild boar accidents.

Knowledge of the risk of collisions in relation to various landscape elements (feeding, buildings, agricultural land, forests, etc.), fence function, barrier effects and bridge function for wild boar is needed to be able to choose measures to mitigate the growing problem of wild boar accidents.

Activities

In this subproject, we study how tagged wild boars move in relation to roads with different number och cars, speed and fencing measures, where the animals pass (and not pass), times of day and year, etc. The studies will shed light on collision risks, barrier effects and efficiency from mitigation measures. We attempt to make a comparison with wild boar accidents reported.

The project will make use of data on tagged wild boars in a research project at SLU Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, conducted since 2018, and where some 60 wild boars have been followed in different areas in south Sweden, in the vicinity of roads of various size.