Recreational hunting and the use of non-selective traps for population control of feral pigs in Brazil

Excerpt

Managing wildlife populations is a complex task due to the multiple ecological links established both between ecosystem components and with human activities such as agriculture. Management of non-native species, or native species when populations reach excessive numbers, often includes lethal control methods (Verdade et al. 2014), and recreational hunting is sometimes suggested as a method for population control of exotic species (e.g., Nugent 1988; Zivin et al. 2000; Quirós-Fernández et al. 2017; Rosa et al. 2018). Specifically in Brazil, while hunting of wild animals is prohibited by law (Law no. 5.197/1967—http://​www.​camara.​gov.​br/​sileg/​integras/​487615.​pdf), since 2013 hunting of feral pigs is permitted as a method of population control (NI 03/2013, http://​www.​ibama.​gov.​br/​legislacao/​javali). This was prompted in large part because the species has caused huge damages to rural producers, and affected biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado (Brazilian savannah), Pampa and Pantanal biomes (Oliveira 2012; Pedrosa et al. 2015; Rosa 2016; Hegel and Marini 2013). However, only one study has tested the effectiveness of methods used to capture feral pigs in Brazil; there was a reduction in the incidence of feral pigs in a protected area after hunting with and without dogs and live trapping were used (see Rosa 2018). …