Spatiotemporal relationships between wild boar and sympatric species in south-eastern China

Context In recent years, the rapid increase in wild boar (Sus scrofa) numbers has sparked broad concern about this species’ impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity. Aims This study aimed to investigate interspecific relationships between wild boar and major sympatric species in terms of space-use overlap, occupancy probability, diel activity rhythms and short-term dynamic responses, and to determine whether wild boar activity was associated with spatial avoidance, temporal partitioning or short-term behavioural responses. Methods We deployed 91 infrared camera traps and monitored the study area continuously for 12 months. We quantified relative abundance, spatial overlap, occupancy and detection processes, diel activity rhythms and short-term post-detection responses for adult wild boar records, other wild boar records, all wild boar records and major sympatric species. Key results We obtained 25,306 effective camera-days and 9607 independent valid records, and recorded 37 wild vertebrate species. Reeves’s muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), silver pheasant (Lophura nycthemera) and wild boar were the dominant species. Wild boar showed high space-use overlap with Reeves’s muntjac (92.06%), silver pheasant (83.04%), rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta, 66.80%), other pheasants and masked palm civet (Paguma larvata). Single-species occupancy models showed no general negative effect of wild boar activity intensity on sympatric species; only all wild boar was marginally positively associated with rhesus macaque, and reverse models showed a marginally positive association only between rhesus macaque and other wild boar. Detection models indicated positive codetection associations between wild boar and several sympatric species within the same 10-day survey occasion, while NDVI0422 was the most important variable explaining the occupancy probability of other wild boar. Adult wild boar differed significantly in diel activity rhythms from several sympatric species. Piecewise exponential additive mixed model results showed increased short-term visitation risk of Reeves’s muntjac, silver pheasant and crab-eating mongoose (Herpestes urva) after wild boar occurrence, but decreased short-term visitation risk of rhesus macaque. Conclusions The relationship between wild boar and sympatric species did not reflect a single pattern of spatial exclusion. Instead, it involved a complex combination of high space-use overlap, species-specific occupancy responses, short-term positive codetection associations, diel activity partitioning and short-term dynamic responses. Implications Management of wild boar in subtropical forest ecosystems should be guided by long-term monitoring of activity intensity, population density, habitat conditions, road disturbance and community dynamics, rather than by assuming a uniformly negative effect on sympatric species.