engleski

How does the hunting method affect the trophy value of wild boar?

In recent years, wild boar recorded trends of growth in population number and cull in whole of Europe. Similar situation is also in Croatia where in the last ten years the population number has almost doubled. This paper will examine how the increased population number of wild boar reflects on the share of trophy individuals as well as on the average trophy value of culled boars. Through sex and age structure, and trophy value of culled game in the observed period we wanted to determine trends and correlation of researched parameters. For research purposes, from 1999. until 2014., analysis of culled wild boars in two chosen hunting grounds of central Croatia (IV/22 “Petrova gora” and IV/9 “Pokupski bazen”) will be conducted. These hunting grounds are managed by Hrvatske šume d.o.o., a government owned company, and therefore the management methodology is identical. Information needed for the research will be taken from forms that are filled in accordance with regulations for implementation of hunting management plans. Results show that in younger age categories both sexes participate equally in cull. Female participation increases over male in middle aged and mature individuals. In the last ten years trophy values are stagnant or slightly decreasing. Reasons for this should be sought in hunting methods, where drive hunt is dominant and selection is almost impossible. This hunting method results in increased participation of female individuals in cull, considering that typically older female individuals are herd leaders and are often the first culled in drive hunt. On the other hand these hunts are more interesting to hunters and much more cost effective to hunting wright holders. For this reason we can expect that without a more significant change in management there will be no positive changes in trophy values trend.

wild boar; trophy value; wildlife management; population density; drive hunt

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