Hogs sleep like logs: wild boars reduce the risk of anthropic disturbance by adjusting where they rest

Many animals living in anthropized landscapes try to avoid encountering people by being active at night. By doing so, however, they risk being disturbed while at rest during the day. To mitigate this risk, diurnally resting species may be highly selective about where they rest. Here, we used GPS and activity sensors to study how wild boars (Sus scrofa) adjust their resting site selection and visitation patterns to the risk of disturbance by people. The data was complemented with audio recordings from animal-borne loggers to evaluate the efficacy of wild boars resting strategy in reducing the probability of encountering people while at rest. Generally, we found that wild boars did not specifically avoid resting near villages or roads, i.e. where the risk of encountering people is higher, if they could find sites with suitable vegetation cover. Wild boars could actually rest close to villages with very little risk of being disturbed. Resting sites located close to villages were visited more repeatedly that those located further away, suggesting that focusing on a few familiar and quiet resting sites was a successful strategy for resting undisturbed in an anthropized landscape.