Contact patterns in wild pigs ( Sus scrofa ) from GPS tracking reveal spatial and temporal dynamics of social behaviour

McIlraith, Jack R.; Webb, Stephen L.; Beasley, James C.; Schlichting, Peter E.; Chinn, Sarah; Boughton, Raoul; Long, Jed A.

doi:10.1139/cjz-2024-0099

Contact patterns in wild pigs ( Sus scrofa ) from GPS tracking reveal spatial and temporal dynamics of social behaviour

Journal Article · Tue Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2024 · Canadian Journal of Zoology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2024-0099· OSTI ID:2562980

McIlraith, Jack R.; ; ; ; ; ;

Wild pig ( Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758) social behaviour affects disease transmission and landscape-level population management. Recent research has incorporated analysis of social structure to better understand the risk of disease transmission in wild pigs, although the relationship between overall social structure of wild pigs remains unclear. Here, we seek to improve understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of wild pig social structure and contact rates to better inform management strategies. Using GPS tracking data, we measured home range overlap, and estimated contact rates of wild pigs at four study sites in the southern USA to identify pairwise social associations (i.e., contacts) based on synchronous movement. Contact rate was strongly associated with home range overlap, but exhibited substantial variation, especially at moderate levels of home range overlap. We found that female–female dyads had higher contact rates and longer duration phases of social association compared to female–male and male–male dyads. We found male–male dyads tended to experience social associations farther from their home range centers than female–female or female–male dyads. Social associations between wild pig dyads are highly dynamic in their spatial and temporal structure. Further, dyads with strong social associations still experience substantial time apart. Our findings highlight the challenges of predicting spatial and social associations in wild pig social pairs due to their dynamic social structure over space and time.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)

Grant/Contract Number:: EM0005228

OSTI ID:: 2562980

Journal Information:: Canadian Journal of Zoology, Journal Name: Canadian Journal of Zoology Vol. 103; ISSN 0008-4301

Publisher:: Canadian Science PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Canada

Language:: English

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