Impact of wild boar rooting on small forest-dwelling rodents

Assessing impacts of wild boar on ecosystems is a research priority worldwide, with applied implications for environmental management. We evaluated whether rooting intensity by wild boar affected a rodent community in Central Italy. Rooting intensity was measured within trap transects and all around them, following standard procedures. We live-trapped rodents in coppiced forests with a gradient of rooting intensity (including a fenced, boar-proof, area) and evaluated relationships between abundance and rooting for two arboreal and five ground-dwelling species. Among those, the most abundant ones were the bank vole Myodes glareolus and the yellow-necked wood mouse Apodemus flavicollis. Rooting within and outside transects correlated to each other, as well as with the local passage rate of the wild boar, assessed through camera-trapping. We found a negative relationship between rooting intensity and abundance of bank voles, that is, the main food resources of some predators of conservation concern. Rooting activity may trigger effects on ground-dwelling rodents at the population level.