Parturient behaviour and offspring-directed aggression in farmed wild boar of three genetic lines

The farming of ‘alternative’ species such as wild boar is becoming increasingly common in western agriculture. Relatively little has been published about the behaviour of wild boar in captivity, and data about parturition and maternal behaviour are particularly scarce. Twenty-four primiparous farmed wild boar females of three genetic lines (SD, San Diego; PK, Peter Kalden; S, Scandinavian) were videotaped before and during parturition, and production data were recorded. Sows were housed in individual, well-strawed pens measuring 3.05 m ×1.52 m. The duration of parturition, duration of inter-birth intervals (IBIs), frequency of posture changes before and during parturition and nature of parturient behaviour were recorded. Offspring-directed aggression displayed by the sows was scored as 0 (none), 1 (moderate) or 2 (severe). A score of 2 indicated that a sow killed one or more of her young and/or human intervention was required to control her aggression. Mean±S.D. litter size was 5.4±1.5 young. Mean±S.D. duration of parturition was 81.4±79.2 min. Litter size and duration of parturition did not vary with genetic line. Eight sows (33.3%) showed some offspring-directed aggression; of these, two killed one or more of their young. Aggression score varied with sows’ genetic line: SD sows (62.5% of which scored 1 or 2) were more aggressive than either PK (22.2%) or S (14.3%; P n =4) than those scoring either 0 (56.0±13.7 min; n =16) or 1 (52.8±27.3 min; n =4; P P P