Journal of Ecology and Environment

pISSN 2287-8327 eISSN 2288-1220

Article

Home Article View

Research

Published online July 21, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1186/s41610-020-00160-z

Journal of Ecology and Environment (2020) 44:17

Diet composition of the Korean wild boar Sus scrofa coreanus (Suidae) at Mt. Jeombongsan, Korea

Hyung-Min Shin1, Jihee Kim1, Seon Deok Jin2, Ho-Yeon Won2 and Sangkyu Park1

Department of Biological Science, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea; Division of Climate & Ecology, National Institute of Ecology, Seocheon, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to:Sangkyu Park

Received: February 18, 2020; Accepted: June 15, 2020

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Abstract

Background

Korean wild boars (Sus scrofa coreanus Heude), because of their adaptability, are a widespread large mammal; however, they sometimes cause problems by invading farms and eating the crops, creating insufficiencies of some foods in South Korea. To understand the diet composition of Korean wild boars according to sex and body size, we collected their feces from Mt. Jeombongsan, Seoraksan National Park, South Korea. The sizes of fecal samples were measured, and genomic DNA was extracted from the samples. We amplified specific loci targeting plants (rbcL and trnL) and animals (COI) to detect the food sources of this omnivore and amplified the ZF and SRY regions to determine the sex.>

Results

In the wild boar feces, Rosaceae and Bryophyte were the most frequently detected plant food sources at the family level and Diptera and Haplotaxida were the most frequently detected animal food sources at the order level. As a result of sex determination, the sex ratio of wild boars collected in the Mt. Jeombongsan area was approximately 1:1. Our result suggested that there is no significant difference between the diet composition of male and female boars. Based on the average cross-sectional area of the feces, the top 25% were classified into the large body size group and the bottom 25% were classified into the small body size group. The large body size group mainly preferred Actinidiaceae, and the small body size group most frequently consumed Fagaceae. The diet of the large body size group was more diverse than the small body size group.>

Conclusions

Our results showed that the wild boars preferred Rosaceae, especially Sanguisorba and Filipendula, as plant food sources, and Diptera and Coleoptera of Insecta as animal food sources. Based on the results, the dietary preferences of wild boar appear to be distinguished by not their sex but their body size. Our study could help to elucidate the feeding ecology and population structure of wild boar, as well as address conservation and management issues.

Keywords: Sus scrofa ; Mt. Jeombongsan; Feces; Diet; Sex determination

Share this article on

Related articles in JEE

  • There is No Related Article.
Close ✕

Journal of Ecology and Environment

pISSN 2287-8327 eISSN 2288-1220