12 August 2015, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Wild boars are gaining ground – climate change boosts population growth. The wild boar population in Europe is growing. However, the reasons for this growth were not yet clear. Scientists from the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (FIWI) of the Vetmeduni Vienna now found that climate change plays a major role. The number of wild boars grows particularly after mild winters. Also food availability is a decisive factor. There are more wild boars after years with high beechnut yield. The research results have recently been published in the journal Plos One. The wild boar population in Europe has been constantly growing since the 1980s. This is more and more becoming a problem for agriculture when animals raid the fields, looking for feed. “It is not so easy to determine the number of wild boars in Europe,” says wildlife biologist and first author of the study, Sebastian Vetter. “Therefore we analysed data on hunting bags and road accidents involving wild boar. Doing this we were able to depict the growth of the wild boar population.” Read more here
Tag Archives: animal response
1 May 2015, The Conversation: One in six species faces extinction as a result of climate change.The Earth is on course to lose up to one in six of all its species, if carbon emissions continue as they currently are. This global extinction risk masks very large regional variations. Up to a quarter of South American species may be doomed. These are some of the findings of a comprehensive piece of new research conducted by evolutionary ecologist Mark Urban and published in Science. Read More here