Oliver Keuling

University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover | TiHo · ITAW - Institut für Terrestrische und Aquatische Wildtierforschung / Institute of Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research

As one of the most abundant game species in Europe, European wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations prove highly adaptable to cultivated landscapes. The ongoing process of climate change and the high agricultural yields seem to further optimize the living conditions for this species. In long-term reproduction monitoring, we collected data on the body w...

Die Graugans war in Niedersachsen im späten Mittelalter ausgestorben. Erst in den 1980er Jahren wurde die Art durch ein Projekt der Landesjägerschaft und des Landwirtschaftsministeriums wieder heimisch. Wie hat sich die Art in Niedersachsen entwickelt? Ein Bericht über den aktuellen Status und das laufende Forschungsprojekt von IWWR und ITAW.

The hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related bovine hepacivirus (BovHepV) can cause acute as well as persistent infections in cattle. The true clinical relevance of the virus is not yet known. As reliable antibody detection methods are lacking and prevalence studies have only been conducted in cattle and few countries to date, the true distribution, genetic...

As a zoonotic pathogen, the hepatitis E virus (HEV) leads to numerous infections in humans with different clinical manifestations. Especially genotype 3, as causative agent of a foodborne zoonosis, is transmitted to humans by ingestion of undercooked or raw meat containing liver from HEV infected animals. Although the virus' prevalence and dissemin...

Abstract This report presents the results of field activities in relation to the generation of reliable wild boar density values by camera trapping (CT) in 19 areas in Europe, mainly in East Europe. Random Encounter Model (REM) densities ranged from 0.35±0.24 to 15.25±2.41 (SE) individuals/km2. No statistical differences in density among bioregion...

Understanding the spatio‐temporal distribution of ungulates is important for effective wildlife management, particularly for economically and ecologically important species such as wild boar (Sus scrofa). Wild boars are generally considered to exhibit substantial behavioral flexibility, but it is unclear how their behavior varies across different c...

High wild boar population densities lead to demands for a population reduction to avoid crop damages or epidemic diseases. Along with biological studies, a better understanding of the human influence on wildlife and on wildlife management is important. We conducted inquiries on hunting methods and on hunters’ attitudes in the Federal State of Lower...

Raw data to Keuling, O.; Strauß, E.; Siebert, U. How Do Hunters Hunt Wild Boar? Survey on Wild Boar Hunting Methods in the Federal State of Lower Saxony. Animals 2021, 11, 2658. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ani11092658

Keuling, O., and G. Massei. Does hunting affect the behavior of wild pigs? Human–Wildlife Interactions, Vol. 15, Iss. 1, Article 11. Table 1. Overview on studies examining effects of hunting activities on movements, spatial behavior, and activities of Sus scrofa. HR = home range; ? = effect of removal not clear, not clearly stated, or only assume...

Wild boar and feral swine (Sus scrofa) numbers are growing worldwide. In parallel, their severe ecological and economic impacts are also increasing and include vehicle collisions, damage to crops and amenities, reduction in plant and animal abundance and richness, and transmission of diseases, the latter causing billions of U.S. dollars in losses t...

Hunting can easily be linked to stress in wildlife. Drive hunts performed two to three times in one area during the respective hunting period, are thought to decrease the pressure hunting places on wildlife. Nevertheless, the expression of cortisol—one of the main mammalian stress hormones—is considered to have negative impacts on animals’ well-bei...

Background: The wild boar population in Europe is steadily growing, one of the reasons for this increase probably being the high reproductive potential of this large mammal. Population management is important to stabilise wild boar numbers and a great deal of attention is focusing on the reasons, which might contribute to the high reproductive rat...

The ubiquitous wild boar is causing diverse and growing conflicts of socio-ecological and economic relevance worldwide. For that reason, knowledge of its spatial ecology is crucial to designing effective management programmes. But this knowledge is scarce in Mediterranean areas with mixed land uses. We describe the spatial ecology and habitat selec...

As part of a state-wide study on the breeding occurrence of Greylag Geese in Lower Saxony, the breeding populations in three selected areas (Großes Meer (53° 25′ N, 07° 17′ E), Unterems (53° 18′ N, 07° 23′ E) and Dümmer (53° 34′ N, 11° 12′ E)) were recorded using different methods in spring 2016 and the results compared. The three areas are charact...

In order to define the spatial interface between wild boar and domestic pigs in Europe, the ENETWILD consortium (www.enetwild.com) described in a preliminary report the different sources of data for domestic pigs at European scale, and developed a preliminary risk map of possible spatial interaction between both groups. This model explored and asse...

ENETWILD consortium has developed methodologies for modelling wild boar abundance distribution based on hunting yield (HY) data. Although the methodologies reached an acceptable reliability, when models were downscaled to higher spatial resolution the predictions of absolute numbers of hunted animals tended to overprediction. Some important issues...

Although the almost worldwide distributed wild boar Sus scrofa is a well-studied species, little is known about the behaviour of autochthonous, free living wild boar in a spatiotemporal context which can help to better understand wild boar in conflict terms with humans and to find solutions. The use of camera traps is a favourable and non-invasive...

The general aim of this guidance is to review the methods for estimating relative abundance and density in wild ruminant species and give insights on how to obtain reliable estimations by using those methods. The results are a possible guideline on best practices to improve the accuracy and comparability of density methods. For these purposes, we r...

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is a key topic in conservation and agricultural research. Decision makers need evidence-based information to design sustainable management plans and policy instruments. However, providing objective decision support can be challenging because realities and perceptions of human-wildlife interactions vary widely between a...

Only little is known about the effect of stress (both short-term and long-term) on wildlife species. To get an idea of stress in wildlife, we investigated the cortisol level of wild boar during drive hunts in Lower Saxony, Germany. Cortisol as one of the main stress hormone in mammals is considered to have negative impacts on the animal’s well-bein...

In 2007, the current outbreak of African swine fever (ASF), which severely affects wild boar populations and pigs, reached the Caucasus region. Since then, the virus has spread into eastern Europe and some places in central and western Europe (such as Belgium) through wild boar, domestic pigs, and human activities. The virus has raised serious conc...

Pegiviruses belong to the family Flaviviridae and have been found in humans and other mammalian species. To date eleven different pegivirus species (Pegivirus A-K) have been described. However, little is known about the tissue tropism and replication of pegiviruses. In 2016, a so far unknown porcine pegivirus (PPgV, Pegivirus K) was described and p...

Background: Multiple paternity (i.e. when the litter of a pregnant female is fertilized by more than one male) is common in a variety of animal taxa, including several ungulate species. It is generally believed that dominant males of European wild boar (Sus scrofa) monopolize several females, suggesting that multiple paternity is a rare phenomenon...

Preliminary results of currently running camera trapping project

The aim of this guidance is to assess the accuracy and reliability of the methods for estimation of density (i.e. population size per area unit) and relative abundance (i.e. relative representation of a species in a particular ecosystem, a kind of proxy of the density) of wild boar and to provide indications for calculating reliable and accurate es...

The recently identified atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) was demonstrated to be the causative agent of the neurological disorder “congenital tremor” in newborn piglets. Despite its relevance and wide distribution in domestic pigs, so far nothing is known about the situation in wild boar, representing an important wild animal reservoir for the rel...

Die Schwarzwildbestände sind Europaweit immer noch steigend, auch wenn in einigen Ländern oder Regionen derzeit eine Stagnation der Schwarzwildstrecken zu verzeichnen ist. Das Standorttreue Schwarzwild könnte in relativ kleinen Managementeinheiten gemanagt werden. Ein Übergreifendes Management ist v.a. aufgrund der Anpassungsfähigkeit dieser Wildar...

Inter‐individual contacts in wildlife populations are usually highly heterogeneous. This variation translates into differential disease transmission rates between individuals, which have vital consequences for the spread, persistence, and control of infectious diseases. Wild boar (Sus scrofa) is an abundant game species across Europe that poses ser...

Names Genus: Sus Linnaeus, 1758 New proposed species: Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758; Sus nigripes Blanford, 1875; Sus ussuricus Heude, 1888; Sus moupinensis Milne-Edwards, 1871; Sus chirodontus Heude, 1888; Sus leucomystax Temminck, 1842; Sus riukiuanus Kuroda, 1924; Sus taevanus Swinhoe, 1863; Sus davidi Groves, 1981; Sus cristatus Wagner, 1839; Sus v...

Seit Jahren wird der Anbau von Wildpflanzenmischungen für die Biogasproduktion getestet, um Vorteile für Wild und Natur zu erreichen. Ob der gewünschte Effekt erzielt werden kann, erforschten jetzt Wissenschaftler von der Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover.

Wild boar populations increased in Europe in the last decades and cause problems like crop damage, disease transmission and vehicle accidents. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the underlying causes to reduce populations effectively. Wild boar reproductive capacity is one of the highest among mammals. Thus, factors determining wild boar rep...

Short report about colour banding of Greylags in Lower Saxony and call for help to hunters reporting their sightings.

Moderene technologiën zorgen ervoor dat we dieren op een veel nauwkeurigere manier kunnen bestuderen. Dankzij GPS-halsbanden slagen we erin om bewegingspatronen van everzwijnen gedetailleerd weer te geven. Deze gegevens kunnen gebruikt worden om schade door everzwijnen in kaart te brengen en de groeiende populatie op een duurzame manier te beheren.

As the second largest cause of biodiversity loss worldwide, there is an urgent need to study the dynamics of biological invasions and identify factors limiting the distribution of invasive alien species. In the present study we analyze national-scale hunting bag data from Germany to predict the dispersal of raccoons in the largest non-native popula...

In recent decades, the wild boar Sus scrofa has simultaneously increased its population size and colonized new habitats, causing more ecological and socio-economic concern than perhaps any other ungulate species. However, the drivers and mechanisms of the species' spatial ecology remain poorly understood. Thanks to a recently developed framework, t...

Wild boar management is still a main objective in wildlife research - worldwide. Establishing management strategies is difficult on a small scale, on a larger scale it is a real challenge. Thus, knowledge on influencing factors and changes is permanently needed. I present some results of 20 years of wild boar research in Lower Saxony (double size o...

All over Europe wild boar (Sus scrofa) population densities are increasing and spreading into agricultural and cultivated regions. As a result economic problems, like field damages and thread of diseases outbreak rise. So far most studies were conducted in forests, were recently the wild boar mainly occurred. From 2011 until 2013 a project took pla...

Although the wild boar Sus scrofa is an almost worldwide distributed and well-studied species, little is known about the behavior of autochthonous, free living wild boar in a spatiotemporal context. Therefore the use of camera traps is a favorable, noninvasive and low-disturbing method to study them. To observe natural behavior, activity pattern, h...

The European wild boar is one of our most frequent and widespread free-ranging ungulate species. In the light of steadily increasing stocks all over Europe the control of diseases (including zoonoses) as well as the avoidance of damage in agriculture and specialized crops caused by overpopulation requires improvement of existing management practice...

The occurrence of multiple paternities is common in mating systems of a lot of animal taxa and also documented in several ungulate species. It describes the genetically fatherhood of more than one male within one female litter. Common knowledge of European wild boar (Sus scrofa) behaviour in which single dominant male monopolizes several females su...

Das Schwarzwild breitet sich weiterhin aus und besiedelt nun auch die Agrarlandschaften. Es ist zu erwarten, dass die Schwarzwildstrecken, gefördert durch Landschafts- und Klima-veränderungen, mittelfristig weiter steigen und somit auch die Bejagung als unzureichend erscheint. Aus ökologischen und ökonomischen Gründen ist ein fundiertes jagdliches...

Wild boar science is changing a lot. The species wild boar (Sus scrofa), once threatened, is one of the latest domesticated species. Wild boar is so successful that currently it causes strong economic and ecological damages all over the world. The interest in Sus scrofa continues to grow rapidly, not only within its native range, but also in all ot...

Usually economic damages in agricultural crops are estimated in many different ways between the farmer and the hunter or a third appointed person is activated in case of discordance. But anyhow, the damages are estimated. Many new technologies simplified and optimized mankind’s life and this is another attempt for a relative cheap and simple method...